Phannapast "Yoon" Taychamaythakool has unveiled her latest solo exhibition, "The Endless Swimming Pool", which is on display March 19 at River City Bangkok’s Photographers' Gallery.
Guru By Bangkok Post met with Yoon at her mini gallery/office across the hallway from the exhibition to discuss the many ideas behind her third solo exhibition. "The Endless Swimming Pool", is a visual representation of Yoon’s universe where symbols, exploration of freedom of thought and Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious intermingle.
The genesis of the show started when she bought honey as a gift for her friend which, coincidentally, was what her friend was talking to their partner about. The coincidence made Yoon ponders, “Our decisions. Are they born from free will or were they influenced or messages from an external factor? The idea of free will is a real thing but in the end, our decisions (whether it was influenced or not) made me interested in the construction of the human psyche and archetypes.”
That line of question leads to Jung’s collective unconscious theory. The connection an individual has with their world through a form of the unconscious common to mankind as a whole, connecting us to one another.
Yoon said, “The collective unconscious is really interesting because it gives us hints about different things that we share whether it's about culture, storytelling, or the world. The unconscious is the thread that connects us to it.”
When asked why the name “The Endless Swimming Pool”, Yoon said it reminded her of childhood memories in school during a swimming lesson and her reluctance to get out of the pool. The pool symbolised being stuck in a loop of thoughts. The only way to get out of it is to have freedom of thought and detach yourself from the physical world in front of you, the pool representing the boundary of the physical world.
She muses, “If a horse could paint a god, it would paint god with the face of a horse. In retrospect, humans use humans as a base for worldly concepts.” However, by detaching themselves from their immediate surroundings, individuals are able to reach creative liberty.
Within the exhibition are different types of mediums Yoon explores to convey her thoughts from visual projection, paintings and sculptures. The piece de resistance is the eye-catching universe that lies at the centre of the event. It's a galactic circle that represents the cycle of life and all things while chariots in the shape of the head of the Roman god Mithras orbit around it.
On one wall is an endless animation loop of a floating eye, representing the Hindu god Brahma, who opens his eyes to signify the world coming to being and closes them to signify the world ceasing to exist.
The symbols within this exhibition relate to Yoon’s own interests; however, visitors are able to have their own interpretations of each piece that applies to their self-journey. An active and boundless imagination is a concept Yoon has always been interested in, the idea that we are able to make our own decisions and follow our own path is something that Yoon considers to be free will and is a topic to be explored within the exhibition.
Words simply can't do justice to the beautifully intricate universe, which Yoon has created for her third solo show, her most personal to date, at River City Bangkok on Charoen Krung 24.
