TORLARP LARPJAROENSOOK
Born on December 9th, 1977, he was raised in a houseboat in Ayutthaya. He studied art at the college of Fine Arts, Bangkok. Later on, he graduated a Bachelor degree with a major in painting from Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University. As an artist whose works involve multiple mediums, Torlarp focuses his interest on creating interaction between art and audience by using ready-made objects in sculpture, installation, and also other artworks in a form of moving architecture. His works act as connectors, linking the audience’s feeling to materials found in everyday life.
Torlarp has had various solo and group exhibitions in many several countries. His work have been collected by international galleries and museums like the Singapore Art Museum and MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum. In 2011, he had a solo exhibition “Bookshelf” at 8Q Singapore Art Museum where his work was collected by Singapore Art Museum. In 2012, his solo exhibition “In Progress” was exhibited at Richard Koh Fine Art Gallery, Singapore. After that, he has joined the exhibition at Bangkok Art biennale 2018 exhibition. Apart from being an artist. Torlarp is also the founder of the Gallery Seescape (Alternative art space). Torlarp is now based in Chaing Mai, Thailand where he runs Gallery Seescape and actively create his new series of his artwork.
The journey of switchhead
BESTTO BOY
Switch head travel Background - Bestto Boy is a light switch. produced at the factory Electrical equipment in the suburbs of Osaka One day, a storm destroyed the factory. Bestto Boy and his brothers were swept away by the water.
Currently
- Bestto Boy has come to life. it was found in place Old electrical equipment shop around Chiang Mai Hang Dong Road however...
- Bestto Boy is afraid of storms.
- The bestto boy likes to fish but is afraid of water.
- The bestto boy confuses himself to be direct current or alternating current.
This character’s main trait is his naïve expression with his long nose, small eyes, and beardless face. Resembling a little bit of Mr. Hulot, a [m] character created by Jacques Tati, Bestto surfs the waves of the Arts and Crafts movement initiated by William Morris.
Bestto’s frst public appearance took place at GallerySeescape, Chiang Mai, in 2009. His creator, Torlarp Larpjaroensook, shaped Bestto out of an insignifcant everyday object: a light switch. Two years later, Bestto ended his bachelor’s life when he met Veena girl, his partner.
The same light switch can be found in all of Torlarp Larpjaroensook’s artworks. Whether it is Bestto or Veena, they stand for their heads and retain the original function, to switch light on. Even though Torlarp already insisted in the past on the importance of the connection between the function of an artwork and its form almost in a purely decorative way particularly when recycling obsoleteobjects, with Bestto, he has created a character which is both emblematic and hard to be categorized.
Following the ins and outs of Torlarp’s life, Bestto sails between the design world and the fne arts world. Icon of the world we live in, Bestto represents this new kind of aesthetic experience that the French philosopher Yves Michaud discussed; beauty is everywhere and art is in everything.
Functional sculpture or a simple lamp, 30 cm or 215 cm tall, Bestto is a true descendant of Pop art in the way it breaks down the barriers between High art and Low art. As in 2012 for the Nike Company in Singapore, Besto leaves behind the art world for a summit of mass consumerism: the Siam Center Bangkok.
But why did the artist choose to do this? Shouldn’t Art be displayed in a more appropriate, acceptable place rather than this gateway, the shopping space where people wander incessantly without really paying attention to anything?
After a phase of democratization of art, thanks to techniques that help reproduce artworks, we now witness another phenomenon by which art invades public spaces, hotels, restaurants, shopping centers and becomes accessible to all. Walter Benjamin might very well rejoice at these changes, but he would also most probably warn us of the dangers of losing the artworks’ auras which could be incurred by such phenomenon.
By exhibiting his Bestto Boy in a shopping centre, Torlarp takes the risk of marginalising his creation by alienating it from the art world and turning it into a vulgar object of consumerism. Indeed it is a risk, however Torlarp tries to engage the Siam Center Bangkok visitors so that they will stop and take the time to listen to Bestto Boy’s story. Deliberately choosing to install the work so that passers-by can interact with it, Torlarp attempts to remind older bystanders of their childhood, while introducing younger ones to another imaginary world full of old objects far away from tablets or smartphones.
Bestto Production Process
