Arts Network Exhibitions

Surface Tension; 9 students, 9 lives

Organization: Bangkok Patana School

An exhibition of Bangkok Patana School Year 13 students work from the final year of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Visual Arts course.

In their course students are expected to develop their own themes and approaches to using the visual communication mode of Art. They do this through observing and analysing art in a social and historical context, looking at contemporary practice and learning from this to inform their own work. They explore issues that are important to them personally, learn a range of different techniques and experiment in a range of media.

The work of this group of 9 students covers a wide range of themes from consumerism to changes in contemporary Thai culture. The title of the exhibition “Surface Tension” links many of the concepts explored in the students’ works. Through their work they question things such as societies’ fixation on appearance, complexities of cultural identity and physical appearance in an international context, our need to have the latest gadget or status symbol, superficial stereotypes of culture and beauty, natural beauty in a polluted environment, political, social, linguistic and personal conflicts that are not always what they seem. The underlying tensions that these issues stir are explored in a variety of ways and a broad range of media.  

Join these 9 individuals on a journey that is both communal and personal. Be challenged to look at the familiar in new ways, have your perceptions questioned, to reflect on the global community we live in or just see things from someone else’s point of view.