When Aroonkamol Thongmorn was a student at the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University, she spent her time during summer break working at an auto parts manufacturer to earn money towards the purchase of a new mobile phone. It was the first time she'd seen auto parts in that context, and she was impressed with their unusual shapes and forms. The experience inspired her to create artworks for her master's degree thesis.
The thesis' concept hinged on the reuse and redesign of discarded material as artwork. Aroonkamol explained that, as she sees it, transforming car engine parts into works of art is another way of restoring humanity. The resulting "art artefacts" from the thesis have since been developed and displayed at many group exhibitions.
Her debut solo exhibition takes the same name as the thesis, "An Aesthetics Of Transformation", and is on view now at People's Gallery, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.
One striking effect of the collection is emergence of an ideal synthesis between engine parts and origami paper art.
"While working at the manufacturer, I found workers had to adjust their movements and gestures to accompany the rhythm of the machines. It made me feel that even though machines are invented by people, they are superior to people or labourers," she said.
"The exhibition transforms engine parts into works of art by combining the parts with origami craft. Origami paper art requires creativity as well as artistic techniques. Origami paper art is an elaborate and precise craft which is in contrast to the harshness and rigidity of the engine parts. The exhibition conveys that even though the characteristics of engine parts and origami art are different, they can form a harmonious combination."
Aroonkamol has been interested in art since she was young. She realised she had artistic talent when accepted into a secondary school in Ratchaburi based on her artistic ability. At the school, she joined the art club and participated in several competitions. After winning several awards for her paintings, Aroonkamol discovered a new challenge when she entered Silpakorn University.
"Classes at the university allowed me to experiment with several materials and objects that fascinated me. I was surprised that I could create artwork from other media apart from painting. I wanted to try what I had never done before, so I decided to use mixed media to create my work," explained Aroonkamol.
During her undergraduate years, Aroonkamol's pieces were created from old or damaged household items and outdoor tools including a wooden strainer, watering can and even a lawn mower. She photographed the objects and presented them in a photo collage.
"I took many photos in the corners of my relatives' old houses to use in my thesis 'Metamorphosis'. After taking many photos, I discovered I was particularly interested in tools used in old houses and the outdoors, but not in the houses themselves, so I focused on the tools. After I finished my undergraduate thesis, I wanted to experiment with other techniques and create three-dimensional art pieces. And so I decided to use origami paper art," she said.
For her graduate thesis, Aroonkamol did research at a waste sorting plant in Nakhon Pathom where there were many materials such as plastic, glass and metal.
"Those recyclable objects have to go through certain processes before being recycled. For example, a giant piece of iron has to be squeezed until it's flat. That process inspired me to reuse thrown-away objects that haven't gone through any recycling process," she said.
"When I decided to create three-dimensional artwork with origami paper art, I did not know anything about origami techniques at all. I started from searching on YouTube and came across an artist, Paul Jacson, who created origami paper in three-dimensional patterns. His work inspired me to create origami art in a way that was right for engine parts."
Before engine parts can be used to create art pieces, Aroonkamol had to soak them in gasoline or kerosene for one night. Then she had to spray them with coating so that the engine parts wouldn't rust. The origami paper was then put in a blender and mixed with cement-coloured pigment which gave the paper a similar colour to the engine parts.
The exhibition "An Aesthetics Of Transformation" gathers work from her thesis as well as experimental origami pieces. Located next to the entrance, Iron Plate is a circular white paper with many brown-coloured rust stains. Aroonkamol explained that Iron Plate is the initial piece which inspired her to create others.
"I used Japanese mulberry paper, which is very thin, to replicate patterns on the metal lid of a large oil drum. Then, I covered it with a plastic because the Japanese mulberry paper is too soft to stay stable. Another material that I used to create some artworks in this exhibition is metallic foil paper sheets since they glisten and make pieces shiny," she said.
The collection is a series comprising five pieces: An Aesthetics Of Transformation No 1 To No 5, each of which was created from five different ball joints -- an important part of an engine.
"I saw ball joints at the waste sorting plant. I wanted to challenge myself to design five different shapes and forms of art pieces based on an engine part. Then, it came out to be this series." She added: "Their quirky forms were inspired by sci-fi movies."
Aroonkamol has won three prestigious awards for "An Aesthetics Of Transformation", a silver medal in multimedia at the 2022 National Exhibition of Art and two other silver medals from the 2019 and 2020 Exhibition of Contemporary Art by Young Artists.
She says the awards encouraged her to keep working.
"When my relatives saw my artworks, they questioned what I was doing. The awards helped me to feel confident and make me want to continue my work further. These prestigious awards have their own standards that require both skill and ability," the artist said.
With just such proficiency, Aroonkamol won a scholarship from the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University, which likewise gave her an opportunity to participate as an artist-in-residence at Taipei Artist Village and Treasure Hill Artist Village in Taiwan.
"I got the scholarship a couple of years ago, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic I could not travel to Taiwan. Now that the situation is better, I will travel there and stay for three months from July to September. I hope that the experiences will broaden my horizon. I may discover more materials and the experience may inspire me to create other kinds of artwork."
"An Aesthetics of Transformation" runs at People's Gallery P3 room, 2nd floor, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre until Feb 26. For more information, visit facebook.com/baccpage and facebook.com/aroonkamonn.
