Strange Trails: James Prapaithong

Nova Contemporary is pleased to present Strange Trails, the first solo exhibition of works by Bangkok-born, London-based artist James Prapaithong in Thailand. Having studied and lived abroad since he was 15, the show is aptly titled after the artist’s meandering biography, and marks a return to his hometown after more than a decade away.

In this new body of radiant works, Prapaithong weaves together moments of nostalgia. His depictions of everyday life are unlocked by luminosity, and become quietly engulfed by the melancholic, and tranquil. Whereas past bodies of his work have focused on a particular time of day, this series spans from morning to evening, and from miniature to monumental: a sunset gradient glows within the frame of an aeroplane window, and reflected sunlight forms a constellation on a cluster of rocks. The show’s centrepiece is dazed with sparks of sulphur, depicting a dandelion-like bloom of fireworks in the night sky.

These ephemeral, luminous snippets draw from a range of informal photographs and videos, often the artist’s own, or taken by those close to him. A selection of these captured scenes are compiled in Everyday Melancholy, an ongoing video piece accompanied by an instrumental score also composed by the artist. While tied to the intimacy of real-life moments, this set of paintings distances itself from immediacy, and instead conjures a plasticity of place. This concurrent closeness and detachment defines the signature bittersweetness of Prapaithong’s work, and is also a result of the layers upon layers of transparent paint that he applies on his canvases. The works thus appear hazy and dream-like, as if each scene is slightly out of focus.

Prapaithong engages in a temporal game, intentionally delaying memories of the fleeting. Since his works often come from travel and changing environments, painting becomes an exercise in retrospection. As he paints London in Thailand, or Thailand in London, chronology and location become obscured. Devoid of narrative or figurative presence, Strange Trails conceives of a new sensory experience without clear beginning or end, forming a simultaneous departure from, and a return to the moments that now only linger in imagination.

Text by Colette Auyang