PosterThe invention of photography has profoundly affected the mode of visualisation and
artistic manner of expression. Photography portrays a mechanical means of authenticating the spectrum of values of light and shade and of achieving the utmost fidelity to appearances. It manifests a recognisable and reproducible character without a trace of sentimentality or meaning beyond optical
objective representation of modern life. Observation of the modern environment, the optical world as appeared is rejected in favour of a world of free imagination, with or without reference to things as conventionally seen. Artist's interest in the distinction between what he sees and how he sees it.
The artist no longer imitates nature but creates it by his free interpretation of it. Artist, consequently, confronts with a challenge in being able to translate the customs, ideas, and appearances of his time as he sees through them; in effect, a challenge in creating a living art. A realm of art is to reconstruct reality, which he comes to find it from within through his own private experience and a continuous
search for what he perceives as "real". The way the world looks becomes subjective to the discretion of the artist, since it has become instrumental to his own invention.
CatalogArtist attains a complete freedom in both subject matter and technique through which realistic representation could be fostered within this perspective to preside over the proliferation of individual style within a broad realm of their variation. The artist's task is not to see things but to see through them a significance and reality far deeper than what is given in superficial appearances; a being
of extraordinary insight-"a reality, from within himself." What the artist finds interesting is in his own environments, moved by the ordinary rhythms of modern life. Realistic recording of modern life is trivial and would be largely abandoned by wholly subjective, non-realistic style, capturing conflict between the seen and the seeable. Artist increasingly explores the space and dimensions on the surface
of the painting, aligning congruence between the distance of his projected realm and the objects he is representing. A road toward realistic proposition, artist expands and diversifies his subject matter to embrace all classes and levels of society and all elements constituted it, embroidering realistic constituencies molded through selected medium, colours, forms and lines conjuring up a realm of art.
Buddhist faith and natural occurrences play an integral part in sustaining cosmic balance. The four elements in nature transform and transfuse from one to the other harmoniously in endearing eternal rhythm pulsating through natural mediums as well as a spiritual one. To become one with nature is to become one with the spirit, is the essence of Four Vision's artistic strive. Each individual artist sets
forth his search for the path toward a state of Buddha through experimentation with different mediums, techniques and approaches. The chosen subject and medium carry scientific significance while profess religious merit. Simplicity and purity of subject matter are drawn as symbols of cosmic and spiritual unity.
A narration through oratory tradition transcribes folk tradition as inseparable domain of religious devotion. Buddhism and local belief transpire their richness and wisdom through customary practices evolving into folk tradition. Khun Sompop Budtarad has explored the reflections upon local tradition within the light of Buddhism projecting inseparable bondage between the traditional way of
life and religious devotion. The sanctity of tradition and its people has been represented with great dignity and with esteem respect. A solemnity of simple devoted folk and the invaluable philosophy passed down through oratory tradition are praised with grandeur. His subject is real and so is his view of it. Truth and reality of spiritual experience are contained in its media and inseparable from them. New forms must be discovered or created out of the possibilities of the physical medium itself in order that new and profound reality can be expressed. His task is to reconstruct reality from his private experience. He has done so profoundly through experimentation with various mediums, such as soot, clay and sand. Fact must be mentally and spiritually transformed into a symbol of the inner experience
of that fact. Reality is revealed by representing the unseen by the visible.
A rhetorical manifestation of incongruent value conceived in modern mode of living and its realm seen through art has been captured and transpired by Khun Sittichoke Kornnark. He elaborates this scrupulous truth by synthesising poetic rhythm of lines and geometric formalism with neutral and restraining composure of colours, perspective and tone. Natural objects are reduced to geometrical abstraction. The familiar objects identified with modernity are seen by their intrinsic qualities and power of colours embedded within the direction and depth of lines and planes, while colour is the reality of space and solids merely fragments. The stillness and simplicity of the forms in geometric patterns resonated by their rhythmic contours, signifying their symbolic importance. The projected reality does not cling to the surface of the canvas but the capacity of plane to create the sensation of depth taking the viewer well behind the picture plane, ensuring a fixation of the elastic strength of the firmly drawn contours.
A relentless and inevitable evolution of any society in all its facets, one easily becomes alienated in his/her own environment. Khun Nattalert Supat-Akanit presents concurrent impacts this ever-changing process has upon various aspects of society and group behaviour, in general. His technique focuses on analysis and expression through medium, forms and colours. He regards the surface and colour
simply as means for experiencing his emotional state. Sensibility represents reality in nature. Ceaseless change of society equates to ceaseless atmospheric change revealed through selective colours. Colour and the medium become means to communicate his emotional state in response to the natural surrounding and
the respective changes. Expressive values of colour; the thickness, shape, direction of brushstrokes and forms molded upon the medium employed to be taken as a tactile counterpart to the intensity of his expression. There is no standard way of seeing. Impacts on the environment are simply the source of his sensations.
What nature reveals to our sensation, virtually equates reality to sensation. Visual sensation and capturing the process of events and catching of nature utterly unawares, rendering a deliberate casualness in the arrangement of the figures with continuity of space spreading in all directions and only accidentally limited by the frame introduced. The subjects are, subsequently, quite unconscious of the presence of an observer.
In search for spiritual and natural truth, Khun Seni Chaemdet unifies modern scientific theories with Buddhism via an unceasing effort to compel the audience to face reality, which the realm of art defines for it. Artist becomes not an imitator of nature, but an arbitrary interpreter of it, trusting absolutely to his own vision.
Seeing is certainly no longer a convincing ground for believing. New theories of physics, particularly the quantum theory and the theory of Relativity, where there is no absolute space or time, all motion is relative to an overall system in motion. In space-time of Einstein's Relativity assumes a continuous, unbroken space; one can say of this rigid, geometrical space that all the represented objects in it are simultaneous. The single scene constitutes a single event. Being no longer restricted to a single viewpoint, the artist might see any given object in the world
not as fixed appearance or shape but as a universe of possible lines, planes and colours. He wants to express complexity of parts as a whole that is, in effect, more than the sum of its parts. The wholeness of the field disintegrates into a plurality of colour functions. Colour must fulfill the structural purposes in composing spiritual states continuously in transition with the corresponding change in natural states of existence maintaining the dynamism of the whole in equilibrium. The rhythm of colours, thus, defines the spiritual and natural boundary and perspective.
The absolute truth of all realm could only be discovered through spiritual discipline, while confronting with the visible world concealed immensely within enigmatic attire. Khun Monchai Khaosam-ang chooses conventional means to convey unconventional messages, like a prophet, through his own crafted signs and symbols. Manifestation of spiritual images being unfolded through rhythm of colours and overlapping forms demystify passages, which he has discovered encrypted truth. The image born of the dreaming and spiritual worlds intricately embraced in richly decorated coloured symbols and forms that only through imagination one could envision such ingenuity. The painting serves to project the images of the spiritual glory achieved through religious conviction. Self-encrypted symbols represented by objects of the mortal world emphasise esthetic sensation, becoming increasingly esoteric and exotic, mysterious and dream-like put audience in suspense in contemplation on the eternal journey.

Teradej Dejrangsi
June 2000

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