LIGHTSCAPES / 1 August to November 2019 at Knox Place and Rodda Lane
Transition is a cross-cultural creative project between Melbourne and Thailand. It explores the artistic progress and transformation of artists who practice across RMIT University Melbourne and Thai creative industries. The project consists of two parts. The first part introduces the creative works of six RMIT art alumnus in the Rodda Lane boxes. The second part of project shows the advancement of fourteen students in the Art and Cultural Exchange Project of RMIT Curatorial Collective and School of Fine and Applied Arts of Bangkok University, located in Knox Place at Melbourne Central.
LIGHTSCAPES / Rodda Lane
Prapon Kumjim, Ohm Pattanachoti, Kata Sangkhae, Rushdi Anwar, Sansern Rianthong, and Unchalee Anantawat
LIGHTSCAPES / Knox Place
RMIT University: Zunyi Zhang, Anyi Yuan, Orlando Mee, Tanya Mora, Lauren Mcneill, Adela Kusur, Wei Chiao Yue.
Bangkok University: Chanya Chunhaphet, Ponphut Khemak, Ngoc Bao Vu, Nutchaya Pungmalee, Phongnarin Siri, Methapon Thepkanjana, Pipatpong Seepeng.
Prapon (Joe) Kumjim was born in 1972, Bangkok, Thailand. He has been a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok since 1998. He was enrolled on a doctoral program at RMIT University between 2006-2009. The consistent themes for his contextual research, art practice and art management ideas tend to pivot around notions of cultural translation that derived from his lived experiences in different parts of the world. His participation in this sight-specific lightbox installation project is a new work called Utopia, which investigates how a lightbox signage from Bangkok can potentially take on new meaning in Melbourne.
Ohm Pattanachoti was born in 1970, Bangkok, Thailand. In 2013, he completed his Doctor of Fine Art degree at RMIT University, Australia and has been the lecturer at Fine and Applied Art program, Chiang Rai Rajabhat University, Thailand since 2013. Recently, his art projects have focused on the research titled “Overlay Memories: the Creation of Mixed Media Painting Represented Individual Spiritual Development which Related to Buddhist and Christian Symbolism and its Transformation to Images” which the research aimed to study the process of art making focusing on three main things included concept, form and techniques within the context of contemporary art.
Kata Sangkhae was born in Bangkok in 1976. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Arts from the School of Fine and Applied Arts, Bangkok University, Thailand, before continuing his studies in the Master’s Degree in the Sculpture Area at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), USA. Kata achieved his PhD from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT), Australia. He is currently a professor at Bangkok University. In his role as a contemporary artist, he has created works relating to identity, urbanization, cultural environments, and socio-political issues stemming from changing places and locations. Participating in the Lightscapes project, Kata transforms his artistic identity as a rapper names SK secret killer to investigate his life experiences and a socio-political transition.
Rushdi Anwar is a Melbourne-based artist originally from Kurdistan. Currently he is working between Australia and Thailand. His work often reflects on the socio-political issues of Kurdistan, Iraq and The Middle East. He poetically draws from personal experience and memory concerning contemporary issues displacement, Identity, conflicts, trauma and impact of colonialism. Based on His background as a Kurd who has lived through recent violence of the region. His works reference to both recent and historical geopolitical unrest that extend to generate discourse about the status of social equity. Which exploring these issues through an investigation of form, material and processes of making. His installation, sculpture, painting, photography and video practice recalls the everyday plight of socio-political persecution, fundamentally expressing the necessity for care, attention and redemption.
Sansern Rianthong aka Zooddooz is a visual artist, design director, type designer, pixel maker, craftsperson, painter, instructor based in Phitsanulok, Thailand. He loves in a grid system, object arranging, patterns, and pixel art. He created various projects based on repetition concept and completed a Master of Art in public space from RMIT University in 2012 with distinction. He enjoys dealing with unpredictable opportunities, working with people from different backgrounds, and working with different kinds of media and multi-disciplinary area.
Unchalee Anantawat is an artist and a full-time instructor at SOA+D, KMUTT. She is also a co-founder of independent run space called Speedy Grandma and a small publisher called Poop Press in Bangkok.
Wilson Yeung Chun Wai is an artist, curator and researcher. He is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Architecture and Design and a member of the Contemporary Art, Society and Transformation (CAST) Research Group at the RMIT University. His PhD research Curating in Between focuses on rethinking the traditional role of the curator and curatorial process. The practice-led research articulates curatorial practice that interrogates the role of a curator in facilitating cross-cultural collaborations as a ‘cultural collaborator’. Wilson is the founder of the RMIT Curatorial Collective in Melbourne, Australia. His works have been presented nationally and internationally, including Hong Kong, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Melbourne, Sydney, Santander, Osaka and Bangkok.
Kata Sangkhae was born in Bangkok in 1976. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Arts from the School of Fine and Applied Arts, Bangkok University, Thailand before continuing his studies in the Master’s Degree in the Sculpture Area at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), USA. Kata achieved his PhD from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT), Australia. He is currently a professor at Bangkok University. In his role as a contemporary artist, he has created works relating to identity, urbanization, cultural environments, and socio-political issues stemming from changing places and locations.
This project has been delivered in partnership with Melbourne Central and the GPT Group.