20/2/2013
Pakpoom Silaphan
Scream, London
Empire State. The artist re-works objects, such as old metal advertising signs, to create a fresh interpretation of Pop Art and opens a discourse on the effects of advertising and mass consumption.
“Pop Art looks out into the world. It doesnʼt look like a painting of something,
it looks like the thing itself.” Roy Lichtenstein
Scream are proud to present Pakpoom Silaphanʼs third solo exhibition at the
gallery, Empire State. Silaphanʼs practice examines notions of globalisation,
mass consumerism and the universal reach of cultural icons across the world.
Primarily using found-objects such as old metal advertising signs collected
during his years living in Thailand, and showing a new body of sculptures
made with vintage wooden Pepsi and Coca-Cola crates, reminiscent of
Warholʼs Brillo Box installations; Silaphan re-works these objects to create a
fresh interpretation of Pop Art and opens a discourse on the effects of
advertising and mass consumption.
The infiltration of western imagery and
ideology had a profound influence on Silaphanʼs understanding of the West
and on his artistic practice. Using his favoured artistic icons, such as Warhol,
Picasso and Frida Khalo, he collages and paints over these branded
advertising signs and crates, implying the artistsʼ identity as a recognised
global brand itself.
Silaphan creates an engaging dialogue between the
relationship between East and West, and the universal language of signs and
symbols that is accessible to all and has been imprinted on to the universal
collective consciousness.
The Everybody Project is a new body of work where Silaphan creates large
grids reminiscent of periodic tables or world maps. The charts are populated
with multiple, small found images of faces from the vast pool of every day
mass media, including celebrities, politicians, cartoons and sports
people.
Each of them is painted over with another symbol or iconic global
reference, these range from Mickey Mouse ears, Batman masks, Warhol
fright-wigs, or Basquiat's spiky hair style. This is one of the side-effects of
globalisation; images or concepts can often become lost in translation, or
begin to take on additional or different perspectives.
In works such as ʻThree Times Warhol on White Coke Buttonʼ and ʻDali Sits
on Triple Pepsiʼ we see a further development in Silaphanʼs signature
advertising sign works. Sourcing vintage metal advertising signs of soda
brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Fanta, Silaphan re-works these signs
with collage and paint to incorporate the figures of his revered artists.
This
series highlights the artistsʼ global profile and elevates the status of these
brands into high-art, with this cultural juxtaposition. These signs clearly show
signs of rust, discolouration and age that become almost sculptural and imply
the passing of time and the history of advertising and its global reach.
The Identified Flying Object is a clever appropriation of Lichtensteinʼs iconic
painting ʻWhaam!” from 1963. Silaphan presents a two metre high aluminium
ʻpaperʼ aeroplane that appears to have been made from Lichtensteinʼs
dynamic work. This sculpture is a beautiful realisation of Lichtesteinʼs desire
to integrate life and art and continues Silaphanʼs investigation into cultural
symbology and its democratic reach.
Since the 1960s, artists such as Warhol and Lichtenstein used brands, comics
and elements of the mass media to remove the formal artistic boundaries of
what was considered Art and made it democratic, relevant and accessible to
all. In an age of “multinational capitalism”, Silaphanʼs ʻneo-popʼ pushes these
ideas further by creating a new Pop vernacular, using the icons and imagery
of his predecessors and the tradition of the ready-made.
Jean Wainwright
comments, “we have the canon of art history literally repositioned on obsolete
advertising signs, provoking the double recognition of brand on brand, the
shared global language and the currency of art”.
Pakpoom Silaphan was born in 1972 in Bangkok, Thailand. He received his
BFA from Silapakom University in Bangkok before moving to England in 2002
to study printmaking at Camberwell College of Art and a Masters in Fine Art
which he received from Chelsea College of Art and Design.
Silaphanʼs work has been placed in the Hiscox Collection, Sir Paul Smithʼs
collection and has been featured in the significant publication “For Which It
Stands: Americana in Contemporary Art” by Carla Sakamoto, published by
Farameh Media in 2012. In 2004 he was shortlisted for the John Mooreʼs 23
prize at the Liverpool Museum. Silaphan has exhibited in Japan, Hong Kong,
New York and will show work in Singapore and India this year.
Press
Lee
Sharrock
T. 07814 862 834
E. lee@leesharrock.co.uk
Opening Reception: Thursday 21st
February 6-8pm
Scream
27 - 28 Eastcastle Street, London
Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-6pm; Sat
11am-4pm
Free Admission