(b. 1980, Thailand) graduated with a BA in Archaeology from Silpakorn University, Bangkok. He is currently a photographer for Wallpaper* Magazine (Thailand edition) and is based in Bangkok. In the past few years, Kaewpring has been transitioning his scope into fine art practice. His work combines an acute sense of composition, depth and perspective with thoughtful observations of the human condition through dream-like settings. He has exhibited his work in the 2008 and 2006 Month of Photography, Bangkok, as well as the group show Positive Living, Bangkok University, 2008.

Curator’s note:

The human psyche is complex. We often live in our own minds rather than being present in the moment. Intangible thoughts have the power to limit our happiness and success in life. We therefore, become trapped by the limits we allow society to impose upon us. It is these seemingly ‘little things’, that become powerful inhibitors for human beings. Tanapol Kaewpring’s newest body of work gives form to these abstract challenges by using a curious glass cube in the natural and urban environment as a metaphor for the systems we are constrained by. These symbolic boxes can be physical such as a house and an apartment, as well as social frameworks of the family, religion, culture and politics.

Each cube is situated within specific environments, the beach, the forest, the desert and the city. Confined inside are elements such as fire, smoke, light and water. These forces of nature have the capacity for great change, growth and destruction and yet they are still able to be controlled by humanity. Even they have their limits. These elements combined with their settings represent aspects of psychological freedom. If we are able to think outside the box, to break the glass that surrounds us perhaps we could achieve true liberation and happiness. Kaewpring’s approach is of the personal poetic, of trapped transcendentalism. He uses digital manipulation and post production techniques to create these intense points of meditation. There also seems to be clear links with Buddhism and Thai culture, during a point when many young Thais are questioning their identity as a negotiation between tradition and modernity.