"Unidentified Familiar Object"

Exhibition by Makha Sanewong Na Ayuthaya

22 August - 21 September 2014

WTF Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand

 

We rarely give a thought to mass-produced everyday objects, especially when they have been in use for a long time, and many would consider them worthless compared to a treasured asset or artefact in a collection. But in their very functionality, they point much more directly to the relationship between owner and object. Then there is their symbolic or iconic dimension, which may be quite independent of this individual relationship: for example, a pair of scales inevitably carries notions of accuracy and justice, of probity in commerce, of exact measurable value. Each object has a powerful fixed identity and an emotional and ideological charge.

 

Our understanding of the meaning and function of any object is formed early; we mostly learn in childhood what an object does,how to feel about it, and what to expect of it. But experiences peculiar to a person or group can also freight it with new meaning, as when lightbulbs and ladders combine to produce seemingly unreasonable fears, when our heart skips a beat at the sight of a bicycle, or when airport police go on high alert over an unaccompanied suitcase. 

 

My experiences and memories give me a sense of how groups or individuals behave. Some of these are rational, but many are not. In this exhibition, I am trying to show how my own experience has sometimes painfully transformed and transfigured everyday objects. 

 

Choosing these objects and giving their functionality a slight nudge so their meaning becomes precarious raises the question whether the object is still the same we once knew so well. If you’re standing in front of an object you’ve known all of your life but it doesn’t behave according to the function or meaning you normally attribute to it what does that do to your own place in your environment?