Thai artist Thanawat Charoensiri’s (b. 1994) art explores his obsession with the cycle of life and the rhythms of growth and reproduction in nature. His paintings mix beings of all kinds at different stages of their life cycles. By varying the size and scale of the subjects in his works, he opens our eyes to the invisible – the love stories, drama, illness and death that occur in the natural world, no different from what we experience during our human life cycle. Thanawat reveals the vanity of life, as well as all the natural beauty in it that we often fail to see. In a time when the rights of animals and non-human beings is generating heated discussions, the artist chooses not to assert the cruelty of humans but rather how much humans simply do not understand about the natural world.

 

Thanawat invites us to observe these other beings around us more carefully, and re-examine what we think doesn’t exist. The aura of mystery and charm in his works draws us into their world and humanises its stories. In the words of photographer Diane Arbus, we begin to realise that “nothing is ever the same as they said it was, it is what I’ve never seen before that I recognise.”

 

Charoensiri graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Chiang Mai University.