A BAT OF AN EYELID by Ark Fongsmut To mark the official opening of the OPEN Arts Space, the 'ROOT' exhibition takes place to offer an opportunity to the audience to engage with new and different perspectives of the art space in order to expand and open dialogue about contemporary visual art. To some observers, the ROOT exhibition brings in the issue of 'nirvana' as a theme. Since the word is already employed in English for many contexts, then to reposition the word this time is not in the notion of literal rendering but of conceptual meaning. This thematic exhibition has brought together 8 prominent artists, including Chatchai Puipia, Ithipol Tangchalok, Panya Vijinthanasarn, Prasong Luemuang, Sakarin Krue-on, Sompop Budtarad, and Tawatchai Somkong to explore and investigate the term 'nirvana' without any preconception. The participating artists have spent several months questioning, interpreting, and presenting this subject in contemporary Buddhism. Project such as ROOT presents new works in which a wide range of different points of view about the theme has been created, as a result of the examinations of its values through the distinction between different civilisations. The exhibition also represents the connection between art and personhood. This was declared in what Chakabhand Posayakrit's speech at the seminar on 'Silpakorn' on 15 September 1998 at Silpakorn University, Bangkok "Art is an individual realm. It caters to personal experience and is neither profound, nor shallow. It involves self-cultivation, inducing background and inspiring environment. It is an easy subject to talk about. Even the ignorant and the uniformed can talk about it." This exhibition aims to remind everyone that linking exhibits to a theme derives from 'our' everyday context. 'ROOT' is concerned with one's own values and ideals, about the question of a genuine dialogue on the conception of 'Buddhism'. The challenging conditions of geography and history are specific, in substituting additional real connections and understanding as well as meanings and structures of its theme. I understand that it might be problematic thinking of the term 'nirvana' without addressing the link of 'Buddhism' as a tool to explore its root. This term sounds abstract and it needs to be presented in a visual form. The artists do so in their own ways and means in the different contexts of how they perceive it. This makes it always complex to put images into words. One of the fascinating things in working with art is to have an opportunity to curate an exhibition in such an unusual art space like this. It is always a challenge to deal with the unusual shape of space, and its location, not only to harmonise the context of the exhibition but also to work in the context of a genuine audience in a financial district of Bangkok. Lastly, the ROOT is an exhibition project expected to speak to speak for a wide range of different points of view about alternatives of presentation and representation in bringing the so-called 'cultures and differences' of Thai contemporary Buddhism and Art. The ability to visualise cultures has become an unavoidable subject and the transcultural approaches are the key of this exhibition that is accessible via knowledge, belief, art, law, custom, habits, or just pointing cursor and clicking mouse.