Unlocking life
Jiewliew is told by others that a perfect princess belongs in a perfect castle. Therefore, she decides to undertake a journey to search for her flawless castle. Along the way, viewers discover the purpose and meaning of life.
Artist Pachanaporn explained that the exhibition was inspired by questions about life she often asked herself.
"I repeatedly asked myself what is the meaning of life after I noticed we are stuck in a loop of happiness, sadness and uncertainty. To find the answer, I read many philosophy and psychology books and eventually figured out that life is a journey. We grow and live our lives throughout our journey."
"Missing Piece" is divided into four zones: Little Beginning, The Game of Life, Castle of Emptiness and Memories of Melody.
The first zone, Little Beginning, portrays the beginning of Jiewliew's journey. Like other people, when stepping out of her comfort zone, Jiewliew has to fight her inner self. She feels her fear, confusion and uncertainty, but still has hope. Paintings like The Missing Piece Within, Crossroad Of The Unknown and The Floating Dreams emit vibes of loneliness and uncertainty.
The Game of Life zone presents how Jiewliew experiences external factors beyond her control, including fate. This zone shows how Jiewliew has to overcome games such as Tetris, a chess game, a board game and a dice game. A painting titled The Unity Die depicts Jiewliew hopelessly sitting on a dice with the number one on all of its six sides because she has no idea how she can win the game.
The next zone, Castle of Emptiness, depicts how Jiewliew discovers her dream castle is merely an empty space. The emptiness reflects how the perfect castle has never been her life purpose, but she pursues it because she has been swayed by others to do so.
"There are many symbols in this zone. Jiewliew sees a marionette which symbolises how she is manipulated by others who tell her that she should be a princess in a perfect castle. Other symbols include keys in a maze which symbolises how she cannot get out," explained Pachanaporn.
The last zone, Memories of Melody, portrays how Jiewliew discovered music is her true passion.
"Jiewliew has long hair, which was inspired by Rapunzel. The long hair signifies bondage, attachment, perfection and expectation. She sets herself free by cutting her hair after which she discovers her passion for music. This zone is about how we can accept our imperfections. Two paintings, Dream Weaver and Threads Of Belonging feature an elderly character inspired by my late grandma. She represents our loved ones who support us as we are," explained Pachanaporn.
The final painting, The Passage Of Hourglass, portrays different versions of Jiewliew in an hourglass to convey that life is a journey and it changes through time.
In addition to the exhibition, Pachanaporn also designed an interactive website that features her digital paintings with Jiewliew as the main character. The website allows viewers to take a self-discovery test which include questions like: What are you searching for? When you have to choose a new path, how do you decide?
"I created the website because I hope to reach a bigger audience since people in other provinces may not have the opportunity to visit the exhibition. The website allows everyone to interact with Jiewliew while they answer questions that can help them connect and reflect on themselves. They may understand themselves a little better through this digital journey," she said.
"I was thrilled to receive feedback from a viewer who took the self-discovery test and said that she felt like she was enveloped in a warm embrace. She probably felt that way because life is frustrating and the website let her know that she was not only one who felt lost. There were other people experiencing the same thing as she was."
Pachanaporn graduated from the Department of Interior Architecture, the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University. She started painting at the age of seven because her mother was worried that she had a short attention span. It was the right decision since painting could keep her engaged for hours and this created her love for art.
When Pachanaporn had a full-time job as an art director or designer, she would spend her free time painting which brought her joy. Her painting collection, "Tell Your Tales", inspired by fairy tales, caught the eye of exhibitors when she showcased them at Bangkok Illustration Fair 2022. This led to her being selected as one of the artists for the exhibition "To The Moon And (Never) Back" in 2023. She discovered that people connected with her paintings.
"I wanted to represent paintings through fairy tales. Many people think that fairy tales are for children, but they also help bring adults back to their childhood. My fairy tales feature life stories which do not end with 'happily ever after'."
"To The Moon And (Never) Back" presented an unlikely relationship between Little Red Riding Hood and a wolf who looked scary, but actually had a good heart. The wolf accompanies Little Red Riding Hood to her grandmother's house safely.
"I received many messages from viewers about the exhibition. I was thrilled that viewers could tell stories of their personal experience after viewing my paintings. A viewer cried at the exhibition because it reminded her of her loved one who just passed away. My paintings give me the opportunity to connect and listen to people. I feel like my work is meaningful since I become a safe space for my viewers and they confide their personal stories to me," she said.
When she accepted the offer to create her solo exhibition "Missing Piece", Pachanaporn decided to quit her full-time job because she knew the solo exhibition required a lot of work. Painting, which used to bring her joy and healed her, suddenly became a chore and a struggle. It took time to learn that there are two types of paintings -- those that she creates for herself and those that she creates for clients.
Besides painting, Pachanaporn designed chairs and sculptures for the exhibition. She encountered many challenges, but the most difficult part of creating the exhibition was finding a theme.
"I read many books and travelled to Ubon Ratchathani, but still did not have an idea for the exhibition. A writer whom I met in Ubon Ratchathani told me that before becoming a butterfly, there is the cocoon stage. She advised me that during this stage, I should not think too much, but do whatever I could. After that, I created one sketch per day and after a week, I put all the sketches up and realised that I wanted to tell a story about the meaning of life," said Pachanaporn.
Pachanaporn is a perfectionist, but she understood that a debut solo exhibition cannot be flawless. Thus, she does not have expectations.
"I told myself to not expect anything. When I completed my paintings, I felt successful and fulfilled even though the results may be different from what I had in mind," she said.
"The only expectation that I have is I would like my brand Peachful to grow and bring comfort and peace to viewers."
"Missing Piece" runs at RCB Galleria 4, 2nd floor of River City Bangkok, until Aug 3. Admission is free. For more information, visit facebook.com/RiverCityBangkok.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
a few seconds ago
More shrimp recalled due to possible radioactive contamination, FDA says
Multiple brands of raw and cooked frozen shrimp have been added to an ongoing recall of frozen shrimp due to possible radioactive contamination, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The frozen shrimp products are sold by Southwind Foods, LLC, of Carson, California, according to an FDA alert issued on Thursday. In a company announcement released by the FDA, Southwind Foods said it is "voluntarily recalling a limited quantity of frozen shrimp" due to the possible contamination with Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope. The bagged, frozen raw and cooked shrimp from the latest recall were sold between July 17 and Aug. 8 in nine states -- Alabama, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia -- the FDA said. The products were sold under the brand names Sand Bar, Arctic Shores, Best Yet, Great American and First Street, according to the recall notice. No illnesses have been reported to date, the company said. The products are being recalled after raw frozen shrimp sold by Great Value at Walmart was similarly recalled earlier this week due to possible contamination with Cesium-137. Both the recalled Great Value and Southwind Foods products were packaged in Indonesia by BMS Foods, according to the FDA. The FDA said it determined that the shrimp from BMS Foods violates the Federal Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act in that "it appears to have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with Cs-137 and may pose a safety concern." Products from BMS Foods will no longer be imported into the U.S. "until the firm has resolved the conditions that gave rise to the appearance of the violation," the FDA said. At this time, no product that has tested positive or alerted for Cesium-137 has entered the U.S. food supply, the FDA said. The FDA said it will "continue working with industry to trace all implicated products processed" by BMS Foods, "to gather as much information about them as possible and take action as appropriate." Cesium is a soft, flexible, silvery-white metal that becomes liquid near room temperature, but easily bonds with chlorides to create a crystalline powder, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. External exposure to large amounts of Cesium-137, according to the EPA, can cause burns, acute radiation sickness and even death.
Express Tribune
a few seconds ago
- Express Tribune
Indie games blaze a trail beyond blockbusters
Gamers wait at the Reanimal video game of the Tarsier Studios during the Gamescom in Cologne. Photo: AFP Developer Jonathan Jacques-Belletete has taken a gamble on forthcoming game Hell is Us, hoping to ape the budget success of indie hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to tangle with industry heavyweights. "I'd had it up to here" with work on big-spending productions whose price tag can run into the hundreds of millions, the veteran of firms like Ubisoft and Eidos Montreal told AFP. "I wanted to try something new, with more agility and creativity." After five years of development, Montreal-based studio Rogue Factor is at this week's Gamescom trade fair in Cologne to debut their action game for Xbox Series, PlayStation and PC before its September 4 release. Setting itself apart with eerie visuals, Hell is Us drops players into a fictional country in Eastern Europe in the throes of civil war, fighting supernatural creatures with backup from a hovering drone that perches on the protagonist's shoulder. Players are offered no map and no on-screen pointers to the next objectives or the stage in the game's story. Creative director Jacques-Belletete said he wanted to "break" with ingrained habits, offering a grittier experience to those players happy to die or run into game-over screens more regularly. The 48-year-old has previous credits on series like Assassin's Creed and Deux Ex, and also directed the game adaptation of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. "I'd seen just about everything" in the industry, Jacques-Belletete said. Big-budget so-called "AAA" games "cost so much to develop that you have to sell astronomical numbers of them to recoup your investment" — leading to a lowest-common-denominator and "rather lukewarm gaming experiences," he said at a Paris event previewing his own game. Jacques-Belletete joined Rogue Factor in 2019, determined to try an alternative approach. The 50-strong team worked with a "much smaller" budget than typical for a major release, although he did not reveal a figure. He argued that this choice had given them the freedom to experiment more, integrating new elements and features with a rapid prototyping approach that would risk being strangled at more hierarchical big developers. That same formula paid off this year for small French studio Sandfall Interactive, whose first game, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, sold four million copies -- a major coup for a relatively small team. "When we saw the success they had, we were very happy, that's very much what we've tried to do," Jacques-Belletete said. Across the industry, "there's something that doesn't quite add up any more," he added, pointing to "a kind of mania for big projects." At the same time, "the industry has had huge difficulties in recent years" with waves of layoffs at major players like Sony and Microsoft — where smaller outfits "seem to have held up better against the storm." "We're clearly blazing a very valuable, capable alternative path," Jacques-Belletete argued. Kepler's rise Games publisher Kepler Interactive has notched up two of the breakout titles of the year with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Rematch, reaping the rewards for developing independent projects on tight budgets. "It's almost impossible to predict a success like Expedition 33," Kepler chief Alexis Garavaryan told AFP ahead of the Gamescom trade show in Cologne, where he will be on the lookout for future hits. Developed by a small French studio, the role-playing title with its Belle Epoque style setting has notched up glowing reviews, four million sales and a message of congratulations from President Emmanuel Macron. The response crowned four years of hard work for Kepler, founded by seven independent studios with a $120 million investment from Chinese tech giant NetEase in 2021. Garvaryan believes Kepler's unusual structure — each studio is a part owner — allows for better decision-making as developers who have already had several hit games have input into the group's direction. Based in London with around 50 employees, Kepler also publishes games from studios that do not belong to the group. Unlike most publishers, it does not demand a high level of control over production of the games in its stable. Kepler "never forces a decision on the teams," Garavaryan said. "We're just there to guide them and help them along, not to interfere." That promise of creative freedom encouraged the team behind Expedition 33 to sign up with Kepler, rather than one of their other publishing suitors. "We liked their vision, the aspect of a publisher set up by developers who know what it's like being a studio," said Francois Meurisse, co-founder of creators Sandfall. Kepler enlisted star actors like Andy Serkis and Charlie Cox to lend their voices to characters, and struck a deal with Microsoft to add Expedition 33 to its Gamepass subscription service as soon as the title was released. "We're very selective: we look at 1,400 projects per year on average and only sign up two or three," Garavaryan said. He added that projects with "restrained budgets" but "sufficiently strong visual rendition and innovative game mechanics" were Kepler's unique selling point. French studio Sloclap, Kepler's biggest member with 135 staff, applied that formula for the hit football game Rematch that reached five million players in just one month. Sloclap chief Pierre de Margerie said that they shared with Expedition 33 both "an original proposal and quality execution". "The creative freedom we have is also tied to the fact that we don't need to sell five or 15 million copies to turn a profit," he added. Compared with so-called "AAA" blockbusters, whose development costs can run into the hundreds of millions, Kepler's titles are "more sustainable, more lean," said Rhys Elliott of gaming data firm Alinea Analytics. The production style "is going to be a real test case for the rest of the industry," he added.
Express Tribune
a few seconds ago
- Express Tribune
YouTube account of puppet show 'Pakkay Dost' hacked
Hackers have taken over the social media account of Pakistani puppet show, Pakkay Dost. The show's creator, singer Bilal Maqsood, took to social media on Thursday and made the announcement. "Our Pakkay Dost YouTube channel has been hacked and is currently under someone else's control," he wrote. Bilal reassured viewers that the necessary course of action is in place. "We are already in touch with Google/YouTube and working to recover," he wrote. Cautioning viewers to protect their security, he further penned, "Please do not click on any new videos or links from the channel until we confirm it's safe." The puppet show came out in 2023 and its visuals and narrative garnered widespread acclaim, fostering a love for Urdu and imparting life lessons to children. Bilal released a second volume of nursery rhymes from the show on YouTube last month. Actor Sajal Ali gave her seal of approval and lauded Bilal's work on social media then and wrote, "Bilal Maqsood, you are doing a great job!" She appreciated the show's reignition of Urdu language amongst the youth, "Urdu is a beautiful language and it's high time we stop running away from it." The show has previously received praise from parents too. "My kids absolutely adore Pakkay Dost. The little one didn't speak any Urdu and now randomly sings Pani hay bachana(one of the nursery rhymes on the show)." read one Instagram comment. Another praised the show and wrote, "Wonderful initiative to promote Urdu language for the new generation," with a string of clapping emojis. In January, Bilal announced partnership with ConnectHear to make Pakkay Dost accessible to the hearing-impaired community through the integration of sign language interpretation. "We are very excited to partner with ConnectHear," said Bilal. "Our mission is to bring joy, learning and cultural enrichment and create a brighter childhood for all children. This collaboration is a significant step towards making Pakkay Dost truly inclusive and ensuring that every child can experience the magic of our show." With the recent turn of events, Bilal asked for the support of his fans and wrote, "Pray for its recovery."
