Pitiwat Somthai Year of the Horse : Project 1/2002 Wood, water, tomato's skin, fern, bamboo 823 x 200 x 205 cm.

CONCEPT Five years ago I started making sculpture after many years of printmaking. My move from Bangkok to Chonburi and the country side of Thailand was dicisive in this sculpture is, for me, a more direct way of making art. a connection with living materials such as wood and tomatoes: it is working with energies. The tomato is a common and global object and, being natural, it rots-then we throw it away without care or consideration. I see the process of the aging tomato as an analagy of change in human life. Through my work I would like people to pay attention to the tomato as symbol of their own lives. To me touching/physical contact is important to realizing ways : which energy flows and I have experimented with this : discovering that through touch prolongs the life of a tomato. This knowledge supports my invitation for interaction between the the public and my work. I belive that all our senses, not simply that of sight, should be involved in sculpture and have often extened my art to include the written word. I hope my work will make a change : open minds, encourage people to reach more deeply into the unconscious world.