Top Rated ▷ Red leaf by Kitikong Tilokwattanotai, 2023 | Collage Painting

In his new series, Kitikong continues his exploration of the meanders of memory in a work rich in symbols. If the artist is recognized for his mastery of lacquering, he is also developing a practicAe of collage.

This new technique echoes a tradition from Northern Thailand, the “Tung”, multi-coloured flags used during Buddhist ceremonies. These assemblages of paper and other coloured materials mark the boundaries of sacred sites to invite the local population and then be offered to the deities. Kitikong appropriates this ancestral practice to create works where the material, loaded with history and spirituality, becomes an additional vector of emotions.

Kitikong’s collages are visual narratives where fragments of paper, in various colours, form complex and vibrant compositions. Each collage is an assembly of memories, impressions and sensations, a kind of contemporary mandala where past, present and future merge.

By integrating collage into his lacquer work, Tilokwattanotai invites us to meditate on the notion of time and the permanence of being. Paper fragments, like memories, are traces of the past that continue to influence our present. By gathering and recomposing them, the artist creates works that are testimonies to the complexity of the human soul.