PANIC WORLD

“I would like to speak on behalf of the Art for Air artist group in order to raise awareness about environmental issues, specifically those regarding air pollution. This is an urgent problem that requires cooperation from all sectors of our global society, as air is essential to life but its quality is often neglected by those in positions of power. As a culture, we tend to undervalue the importance of clean air. Instead, we tend to focus on spending money to fix environmental issues related to global warming, including small particulate matter (PM2.5) that directly and indirectly affect health, including well as natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, and extreme weather changes, etc. Information regarding environmental degradation is readily available. In fact, there’s so much information that we can become desensitized to these issues and ultimately ignore the problem since we have no idea where to start. The situation is incredibly complex, particularly due to its interlinking causes and effects.

The origin of the problem is that the world’s population has grown in excess of what it can sustain. As a result, there’s an increasing demand for food, space and materials, which require the consumption of natural resources, such as coal, oil, minerals, etc. Nature is now in a state of ecological imbalance since its resources cannot be replaced in time to meet human need. It is also an issue that humans do not see the environmental problem holistically. Instead, we rely on isolated problem solving, which is based on the idea of preserving one’s own wellbeing, when we should begin a practice of sharing nature’s limited resources more justly. Solving problems without recognizing that the world is our home and that we are the world is like cleaning one’s house but dumping the garbage at a neighbor’s door. It’s time for humanity to adopt the attitude that we are all citizens of the world. These issues affect us all, regardless of nationality or ethnicity, because environmental problems and air pollution have no borders. Perhaps this sounds idealistic, but in reality, it might be the only solution we have left when facing extinction.

To address the existing air pollution problems in Thailand, the following sustainable solutions are recommended:

1. Formulate a Clean Air Act in which direct public participation is involved. The legislation should emphasize fostering “knowledge to live together in peace” for the benefit of all. It should also include provisions for protecting the environment and promoting international cooperation to deal with the origins of cross-border pollution.
2. Solve structural problems in the public sector and improve the supervision of existing laws to ensure they are fully effective in addressing problems that arise in a more complex societal context. This should include distributing power to local communities and enabling affected individuals to participate directly in problem-solving efforts.
3. Empower individuals to drive change by supporting businesses and organizations that promote environmental conservation through the use of eco-friendly products (Eco Products) and practices. Encourage modifications to daily life that prioritize environmentally conscious choices, such as reducing, reusing, and recycling, whenever possible.
4. “The world is our home; we are the world.” Accurate insights and imaginative solutions can promote societal awareness. Concrete knowledge that becomes mainstream contemporary culture can provide alternatives that lead to behavioral changes. The arts and culture sector can play a vital role in driving this change. With this belief, Art for Air was born out of a collaboration of artists and art organizations who have been witness to environmental problems, especially air pollution, and who want to participate in the correction of these issues by driving this project.

Arnont Nongyao A Weirdo The Last Music Box
Arnont has collected discarded objects and formed them into a virtual world. This world has a strange appearance, its inhabitants resembling both people and robots and also having aspects reminiscent of trees. It emits loud sound waves that may disturb us (noise) since we are unfamiliar with the world’s language. However, this may not be a problem for insects or other living things. Arnont also addresses the sound waves caused by errors and failures in film industry communication systems by combining them with the sounds of various insects that can be heard in nature at night. Today, material technology has advanced significantly, causing humans to distance themselves from nature and even forget its existence. The focus is on developing objects for humans, while neglecting all other environmental relationships. The destruction of ecosystems and other natural elements, such as forests, mountains, rivers, air, and other species, is a direct result of unconscious extravagant consumption and the disruption of nature, which causes it to lose balance. Arnont’s virtual world serves as a reminder of the messages that humans must hear before it’s too late and we face extinction.

Thaiwijit Puengkasemsomboon Air for Art (plant at work)
Thaiwijit’s artwork aims to communicate the loss of freedom caused by air pollution. Through his paintings, he attempts to raise people’s awareness by showcasing the beauty of nature. He also creates sculptures out of everyday leftover objects, which support small creatures often overlooked in society. He is symbolically planting a tree within himself and within our hearts, hoping it will grow.

Kade Javanalikhikara The brown earth and the dirty car
Kade’s work embodies the coexisting of humans and nature. The artist also prompts us to question the ability of humans and other living beings to survive in changing conditions and the toxic environment we have created.

DDMY STUDIO The Sound from Distance
Der’s art transports us back to childhood memories of the sound of small insects in the meadow, which is now lost in the noise of modern city life and replaced by human-made sound and music. As we approach the work, the music stops, reminding us of the need for personal space and distance between humans and other living beings as a sign of respect and peaceful coexistence in nature.

Prakit Kobkijwattana We can’t breathe.
Prakit astutely questions the Thai cultural hierarchy and distribution of power, which is the root of many social and environmental problems in the country. To restore nature’s abundance and attain a more equitable wealth distribution, we must establish a culture that walks hand in hand with the world of the future. How can we achieve this? This is a challenge for us all.

Ubatsat Home stay
Ubatsat’s artwork takes us back 300 years, showing the path of global temperature change in the colors and light spectrum that appear through small dust particles. The work reflects on human civilization’s development in the past, which failed to consider the impact it would have on people today. Through simple and straightforward drawings, Ubatsat questions what we will pass on to our children in the future.

Tawatchai Puntusawasdi Blurred
Tawatchai’s work communicates the distorted perceptions caused by PM2.5 pollution, which blurs the lines between factual and perceived reality. This repeated exposure can lead to abnormal perceptions, which become habitual and accepted as the norm, even when they are not.

Angkrit Ajchariyasophon Gray planet
Angkrit captures the transformation of clear blue skies into a gray and polluted world through his decade-long photography journey. His emotions and thoughts are recorded in an empty space, a 16-meter wall-mounted picture portraying a blurry white curved rainbow, symbolizing happiness in the past. The rainbow is usually a sign of hope and light after suffering has passed, but in this picture, it is obscured by nearly invisible dust particles, stretched and distorted to fit the length of the wall. Whether our actions have been intentional or unintentional, humanity must come to acknowledge our responsibility in the creation of this gray world.

Torlarp Larpjaroensook Drowning under the equator
Torlarp presents the problems caused by increasing consumption in a capitalist system. Relocating the production of the industrialized world to the tropical countries of the equator has spurred a rise in environmental pollution, which can be seen from the map of Southeast Asia. Additionally, hot spots of agricultural activity are visually linked to massive emissions of air pollutants.

Surajate Tongchua Visiting neighbors in the summer
Surajate presents a problem in a straightforward manner through this simple work, belying a multitude of stories behind the issue. The mountain scenery appears beautiful and ordinary, like a picture of nature that we would see in everyday life. However, upon closer inspection, we notice that the picture is upside down. The sky is actually a bald mountain, while the mountain turns out to be a cloud of dust, highlighting the air pollution problems caused by the neighboring agricultural industry that directly affect Northern Thailand. The work also calls attention to the irresponsibility of production processes that negatively impact the environment due to nefarious capitalist business practices.

Paphonsak La-or I promise to pay the bearer on demand.
Paphonsak sends us a warning about the collapse of the current predatory capitalist system and its impact on natural ecosystems. Through his paintings, he highlights the economic consequences of environmental destruction and the lack of awareness surrounding conservation efforts. He uses animal symbols found on banknotes from countries such as Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Sri Lanka to express this message. Notably, Zimbabwe’s currency is currently worthless in exchange.

Kamin Lertchaiprasert Turning Point
Kamin: On February 10, 2023, while having lunch at Aeeen restaurant in Chiang Mai, I came across a message on the plaster wall of the bathroom, written in white chalk. It read: “Only when the last tree has died & the last river has been poisoned & the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money.” I later met Mr. Yuki, the owner of the restaurant, and asked if he had written the message. He revealed that he had copied it from a Native American quote. I laughed and asked for permission to display this message at the Art for Air exhibition, as I believed it carried great value for humanity.

23 February 2023