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Published on December 13, 2007

 With awards from several competitions already under his belt, Utai Nopsiri finally appears on the public radar with "Only Appearance", his debut solo show at Bangkok's 100 Tonson Gallery. And, as suggested by the title, Utai is contemplating the fragile illusion that is life.

But illusion takes the form of solid wood in his nine sculptures - albeit hollow ones - that play with the relationship between two- and three-dimensional objects and visual perception.

A former painting student at Silpakorn University, Utai has decided he was born to sculpt, and that wood is the medium best suited to his aims.

"Since I'm doing works about the nothingness of life, I'm using wood, which is both lifelike and at the same time able to portray the impermanence of life," says the 37-year-old Nakhon Pathom resident. "Trees are planted and grow and finally decay, just like human beings."

Utai's earlier sculptures in wood were inspired by seashell shapes. His 2005 "Overlap Dimension" won second prize at the National Exhibition of Art, a shell made with sheets of plywood that was almost flat unless viewed from afar, when the three dimensions became clear.

"Distance can change our perception of an object," he notes. "I'm interested in shells because they're all that remains of the creature that once lived inside them. Ultimately the shell accommodates only emptiness. So you have the context of life, the dress, the crust that has only emptiness to remind us of what was there before."

The nine sculptures in the new show were all created in the past two years. Utai is still working out ideas on visual perception and reality in some cases, but he has also moved toward the abstract.

He's working in teak and other hardwoods too, and yet remains meticulous in his production, using mortise-and-tenon joints and gum glues to construct the pieces rather than hammers and nails.

In "Dazzle", many triangular segments of hardwood form a distorted shell. It's in the clever way he arranges perspective lines along the length of the sculpture that the flat sheets can be viewed as a full shape.

"I'm not a committed Buddhist," Utai says. "I've never studied Buddhist philosophy seriously. My interest in emptiness came spontaneously after observing seashells."

"Inside" and "Overleaf" together engage in a tangible dialogue between the outer and inner world, between presence and the absence. The former bristles with blocks of wood on the outside but is polished flat on the inside. "Overleaf" is just the opposite.

"Dream 2" delves into abstraction, though Utai agrees that it resembles human legs, and that led him to create the next piece, "Dream 1", which he says "reveals the combination of two legs - one of a woman and the other of a man, but the shape is turned upside down".

From legs he fashions a full body in "Delicate Shell of Self". The human figure seems to be looking at its own feet, a pose Uthai characterises as "the state of considering one's own self".

The biggest piece on show, at 240 centimetres in height, "Delicate Shell of Self 2" was financed by noted artist Chatchai Puipia, who introduced Utai to the gallery.

"He saw my model in plasticine and asked me to do the sculpture on a large scale," Utai says. "It's a seated human being, representing the insight of meditation. It's life's impermanence as addressed by considering the body and letting it be."

"Only Appearance" continues until January 20.

The 100 Tonson Gallery at 100 Soi Tonson off Ploenchit Road is open Thursday to Sunday from 11 to 7.

Call (02) 684 1527 or visit 100TonsonGallery.com.

Khetsirin Pholdhampalit

 The Nation