YOD Gallery is pleased to present “Fallen Cycle” by Thai artists Tian Titirat (Tian Titirat Skultantimayta, b. 1993, Bangkok, Thailand) and Sornrapat (Sornrapat Patharakorn, b.1991, Bangkok, Thailand). This is the first time their joint project is displayed in Japan.

Tian Titirat and Sornrapat are emerging visual artists from Bangkok, who combine various mediums and approaches as individual artists, as well as a two-person artistic unit.  Their artworks have been displayed at the first instalment of the Bangkok Biennial in 2018, as well as various galleries and outdoor spaces in Thailand and Germany.

The work of this exhibition, “Fallen Cycle”, consists of leaves scattered on the floor, and a poem displayed on the gallery wall. In the poem referenced by the artwork, cherry blossom petals scattering in the wind are likened to snowfall. Together with the leaves on the floor, which invoke the imagery of autumn, the seasonal cycle of nature is alluded by the installation. Yet inside the gallery, the cycle of nature is halted, and different seasons seem to appear simultaneously. The viewer gets a glimpse into the passage of time from a timeless point of view. Yet the imagery of withered leaves and scattering blossoms point to the ephemerality of the natural world.

The letters of the poem on the wall have been cut out of the paper to reveal the text. The letters appear elsewhere in the space, but scrambled into a different meaning. One thing has disappeared, and then been reborn as something else. The mortality expressed by the poem has been transformed into a quiet comfort in the knowledge that the cycle continues in one shape or another.

Please join us to see this special exhibition in person.

Artists’ Statement

We humans are 3-dimensional beings living in space-time. The nature of change is apparent to us when we place excerpts of time side by side on our mental projection pane. When the series of change repeat themselves, they can be interpreted predictable as going forth and back or shifting between states in cyclical manner.

“Fallen Cycle” is a spatial art project consist of 2 pieces of work, Fallen Cycle (Clay) and Fallen Cycle (Paper). The two works are installed in the same space as they are meant to be in the same conversation.

Fallen Cycle (Clay) consists of ceramic pieces resembling dry leaves scattering on the gallery floor. These leaves out of natural context point to the natural cycle as observed by human. The leaves sculpture of Fallen Cycle (Clay) on the gallery floor act partly as an emulsifier harmonizing the space in the art space to the outside. Although they appear similar, the leaves in nature are part of natural cycle, the leaves on the street need to be swept, and the leaves in the gallery setting become something else. Not only the context of leaves makes them different things, but also encourage different interactions with them.

Fallen Cycle (Paper) is a page of poetry on the wall, with the alphabets carved out of the page. It is a translation from the last poem written by a Zen monk named Gozan in 1789. The page material, perforated with the absence of the poem, would be juxtaposed by another text composed from the letters that used to be homogeneous with the very same page. The alphabets and the voids left on the page are the complementary opposites of identical outlines. The shift of arrangement creates a different meaning, they are of the similar elements with distinct compositions. And upon a close inspection, one might find further dissimilarities present in absence.

Original Poem by Gozan

 “ The snow of yesterday

That fell like cherry petals

Is water once again. ”

Translation from “Japanese Death Poems” compiled and commentary by Yoel Hoffmann