Invisible Things (TCDC Bangkok)

Exhibition co-curated by Very Thai author opens in TCDC Bangkok.

13 June 2019

The exhibition Philip Cornwel-Smith co-curated, Invisible Things, opened in TCDC Bangkok after its successful first run in TCDC Chiang Mai last cool season, during Chiang Mai Design Week 2018. 

The show revolves around everyday objects of the kind found in Very Thai that are so familiar they go unnoticed. Yet because they are so accepted, they tell us a lot about cultural values. 

In a cross-cultural contrast, we chose 25 Thai and 25 German objects, along with videos and photographs of everyday life. The Thai photography is by Dow Wasiksiri. 

Philip and his co-curators Martin Rendel and Piboon Amornjiraporn will join a panel talk at the opening in June 13. The show will run at the Grand Post Office Building in the Charoenkrung Creative District from June 14-September 15. See you there - or be Invisible... #tcdc #invisiblethings#creativedistrict #verythai #verybangkok

I was co-curator for the exhibition Invisible things, which was presented by Goethe Institut at TCDC Chiang Mai's show. It was the first exhibition by Thailand Creative and Design Centre that was produced by its Chiang Mai branch before being shown at the Bangkok TCDC. The exhibition is part of a worldwide series that paired ordinary objects from Germany with those in other countries, in this case 'Very Thai' style everyday objects from Thailand. Previously it had been shown in Shanghai with Chinese objects and also in Hamburg. The goal is for shows in several other countries to be pairing local and German objects, and eventually to show all the countries’ objects in a combined exhibition in Berlin.

I was co-curator of the Thai exhibits along with exhibition designer Piboon Amaornjiraporn, and original curator of the concept and German objects Martin Rendel. I also wrote all the texts for the exhibits, explanatory panels and 128-page catalogue. The exhibition also included Thai portrait photographs by Dao Wasiksiri, German portrait photography by Albrecht Fuchs and videos by students at Chiang Mai University and at King Mongkut University Lat Krabang.