On Saturday 17 April 2010 from 4.00 to 5.00 p.m., Ambassador Nopadol Gunavibool attended the opening of "Beyond......", an exhibition by Thai artist Kamin Lertchaiprasert. It was held at Artforum, Cairnhill Rd. It was held until 2 May 2010.

With his unique methodology and practice, Kamin Lertchaiprasert strongly leads the Thai contemporary art scene. Based in the city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, he considers art as a process for a better understanding of life and nature, and takes a course of creative activity that emphasizes process, aiming to integrate art and life. For Kamin, art is to question how we can discover an unostentatious essential life.

His works are often based on real-life experience such as events of daily life and conversations he has had with people. Aided by his daily practice of meditation, the artist transforms his experiences into diary-like sculptures and drawings. Many of his works depict human figures sitting in meditation. These sculptures can be interpreted as quotidian portrayals of the artist or the people around him, rather than as representations of Buddha.

The series of 24 bronze sculptures presented in "Beyond... " alludes to natural providence beyond vision and hearing, beyond all human perception. A symbol-like motif is hidden, incised onto the bottom of a seated figure. The bronze sculptures were made by craftsmen in Chiang Mai through a traditional casting method. A seemingly unsophisticated coarse finish is left intentionally, an indication that art is not just a pursuit of technical excellence and decorative beauty.

 A devout Buddhist, Thai artist Kamin Lertchaiprasert is concerned with combining the creative process involved in art-making with the daily rituals and disciplines underpinning his personal beliefs.

Every day for a year, he selected an article from a Thai newspaper, pulped the remaining paper and made a small hand-sized object that responded to the reported problem.

The following year, he systematically revisited each object and meditated on a solution. The solution (or wisdom) was inscribed in calligraphy on the object. Inherent in this work is the Buddhist and Daoist belief that everything in life ― good and bad, right and wrong ― exists in balance.

Kamin spends his daily routine of reading, meditation and art-making to bring this balance into being. The installation is a poetic contemplation of a meeting between Buddhism and contemporary Thai experience. It exemplifies his process-based art practice as it overlaps with his life and philosophy.