My artwork was inspired by Montien Boonma’s The Pleasure of Being, Crying, Dying and Eating. Boonma is one of the most celebrated Thai contemporary artists, known for his artworks that reflect traditional Thai culture, Buddhism, and modern art practices. This artwork left me in awe because of its deep symbolisms. While Boonma’s piece may initially seem like a simple installation with common items such as bowls and cutlery, each object carries its own underlying meaning. The incorporation of ordinary objects expresses the artist’s Buddhist perspective of life and his personal experience of suffering from cancer and losing his wife. Although I am not a Buddhist myself, I could still relate to many of the representations Boonma showed in his artwork. My familiarity with Buddhism, however, comes from my time living in South Korea, where Buddhism is the second most practiced religion in in the country. There, I‘ve come across Buddhist temples very frequently. Yeongtongsa was one of them, as it was right outside my home and I used to walk past it every day on my way back from school. Written multiple times in both numerals and in Korean throughout my painting, the number 1658 is the address number of that temple. The footprints in my painting symbolizes the walking distance between my home and the temple, and how I was surrounded by Buddhist practices. The circular forms shown in my paintings represent lanterns that would often be hung around the temple especially during Buddhist festivals. The primary colour used in my artwork is red, which symbolizes prosperity in Buddhist culture, showing the pleasures of life caused by prosperity Additionally, the numbers in my painting are in colours yellow, green, blue and white, which are all significant colours of Buddhism. The colour grey painted in multiple shades is the main colours shown outside the Yeongtongsa temple. Finally, the two grey rectangular blocks refer to the sidewalk pattern along the temple that I would walk on every day.
A challenge I experienced while working on this artwork was how I had a lot going on in one layer but the artwork on the whole looked like it was missing something. At the end, I decided to add another layer with larger numerals. This final addition brought depth to this piece which is why I think it was the most successful thing I did.
My artwork is a new interpretation of Montien Boonma’s masterpiece. Though it may seem like a simple structure of bowls, its underlying profound messages have inspired many, including myself.