A complete list of lighting installations at Awakening Bangkok 2019

Artist: Don Boy

Location: Lhong 1919

The historic Teochew port-turned-creative space is now home, albeit a temporary one, to visual and sound design team Don Boy’s lighting installation, D19B19. The group considers itself a visitor to any site they exhibit in. No matter how much they learn, they could only be outsiders, and can only tell stories from their own perspective. This thought is the foundation for their Alien Spaceship series, which questions how aliens that have landed on Earth will react to their surroundings and what they could possibly learn. D19B19 imagines the third alien landing in the series and sets it inside a Chinese opera. The installation uses pre-programmed lighting and elements related to the premises, from a gate that represents the blessings Mazu (Lhong’s goddess) showers upon travelers to graphic art that imitates Chinese opera costumes.

Artist: Please Feel Invented

Location: A house opposite Rong Kuek Shrine

Interior design squad Please Feel Invented reviews the connection between human beings through a double-location projection mapping installation that enables visitors to interact with the artwork. Record yourself at the first spot and them rush over to the second spot, which displays these delayed recorded images of yourself.

Artist: COTH Studio

Location: Baan Rim Naam

COTH Studio, in collaboration with four different artists, takes inspiration from that fascinating moment when sunlight is reflected on the water during the sunset and passes through parts of Baan Rim Naam, to create 5:50 Project.

The collective piece includes The Eyes and The Sun, a light installation embedded with a kinetic function; The Rule of Nature, a set of mirrors that reflect the colors of the sunset onto dark corners; Into the Chao Phraya, which imagines how sea creatures would feel during the sunset; and Altering, a series of sunset scenes recorded on different days.

Artist: KEEP_YOUR_EYES_ON

Location: Baan Rim Naam

What if humans are transparent? How would we reflect the lights that shine off them? Artist group KEEP_YOUR_EYES_ON delves into these thoughts by using interactive videos and polarized cameras that help people discover their “unseeable” selves. 

Artist: Ittirat Keawmanorom

Location: Entrance to Talad Noi Community

The disappearance of the Dusit Zoo inspired sculptor Ittirat Keawmanorom to create teleported giraffes that beg, or perhaps even answer, the questions: Where did they go? Are they now in an unknown space?

Artist: Hatchew People

Location: Baan Realrare 

Everyone knows what a roong (“rainbow” in Thai) is, but nobody has really been able to come close and actually feel or touch it. Hatchew People’s artwork depicts rainbows over clouds to explore the pursuit of imagery—things that exist but you can’t actually own. 

Artist: Ake Rawdmek from BGC Glass Studio

Location: Baan Realrare

Reflecting on the polluted atmosphere Bangkokians are living in, artist Ake Rawdmek has created eerie lung-shaped glass sculptures that feature a systematic lighting technology programmed according to an actual human’s breathing. 2019 Breath is a redevelopment of a similar installation exhibited at Hotel Art Fair 2019.  

Artist: Shi Lin

Location: Baan Realrare

Shi Lin uses a kinetic system to explore the thin line between change and permanence. In doing so, she explores the concept of time, and questions the enduring quality of places and our beliefs, and our own perpetuity.

Artist: Living Spirits

Location: Baan Realrare

A follow-up to their previous Awakening Bangkok installation, Antenna of Centuries by Living Spirits uses vertical, pre-programmed light tubes to transport you to various periods of Charoenkrung, from when the first asphalt road was laid to the heyday of marine trade to the unforeseeable future. Scan the provided QR code to control the lighting show via your smartphone, and transform yourself into an instant “time traveler.”

Artist: CONSCIOUS X KIMBAB:)

Location: Realrare House

Collaborative team Conscious X Kimbab:) takes a closer look at the speed of time through a 3D projection installation that displays images showing how Charoenkrung has changed throughout the decades. Called Time Gate, this artwork is a portal that stands between two worlds: the old Chinese-inspired past portrayed through motion graphics, and the new future, depicted through dreamy, futuristic ambient lights.

Artist: TYJ

Location: River City

Lighting in any form—from blazing fires to glittering lights—holds an allure for human beings. Though mesmerizing, light can also be a trap, and TYJ creates this massive lighting installation to test this notion.  

Artist: Saturate Designs 

Location: Rong Kuek Shrine

The tides go up and down twice a day every 12 hours as a result of the gravitational force of the moon. This balance affects how all creatures on Earth live their lives. Saturate Designs reimagines this natural phenomenon with the use of 12 round lights that make us realize how nature’s perfection keeps life going. 

Artist: Saturate Designs

Location: Si Phraya Pier

Inspired by fireflies, a species rarely seen these days due to environmental degradation, Artificial Nature reminds us that, no matter how refined they are, artificial things could never replace the gifts of Mother Nature.  

Artist: VAWA Studio

Location: ATT 19

ATT19, the Chinese-language institution-turned-art hub, has inspired Vawa to create a lighting piece that explores the idea of repurposing a heritage site while keeping its integrity. A series of reflective mirrors placed in unusual angles display vivid colors from every corner. When the rays of light meet, they create different hues, hinting that things aren’t always what they seem. The studio goes on to question what’s revealed in reflections. If you look at distorted mirror, are you still you even it doesn’t look exactly like you?

Artist: Jarvis

Location: ATT 19

Inspired by the impressive and complex mix of characters in Charoenkrung, Jayjay, a collaborative art collective composed of communication design and sound design students, has created graphic renditions that incorporate pre-recorded sounds from the neighborhood. Viewers are welcome to interact with the installation, and create their own visual and sound loops using a switchboard.   

Artist: 305STOP

Location: Warehouse 30

Visual artist 305STOP goes big—literally–with an extravagant 3D projection that covers the entire Warehouse 30. Inspired by the Charoenkrung lifestyle, from the perspective of both locals and visitors, the young artist conveys Thainess through vivid and geometric pop art-inspired moving graphics. 

Artist: Thanabodee Wattanarak

Location: Warehouse 30

Silpakorn University art student Thanabodee Wattanarak uses massive lighting tubes to touch on the idea of borderlines, which usually ignite cultural and political problems. Thanabodee hopes that each step through this light installation awakens the thought of creating unity beyond human-made borders.

Artist: Virinsire Chomchey

Location: Warehouse 30

Inspired by the history of Charoenkrung, Virinsire Chomchey assembles a collection of distorted images of lights taken around the neighborhood. Each photo is meant to represent different stories told by different people. 

Artist: Kiattisak Muangkham

Location: Soi Charoenkrung 32

Using neon-lit objects typically seen in street food stalls, like plastic chairs and baskets, and glasses, this piece delves into the Thai eating culture as well as the aesthetic of Thai street food stalls. 

Artist: Khobfa Chanpensri

Location: The Grand Postal Building

Have you ever wondered how sea creatures feel living in an ocean full of plastic trash? Khobfa recreates the feeling for humans by building a huge acrylic fish tank with walls made of single-side acrylic mirrors. Mounted and hung from the ceiling are wave-like floating light installations made of recycled PET bottles. 

Artist: Bariyard

Location: The Grand Postal Building

Programmer-turned-visual artist Worawit “Bas” Ruengruen portrays the idea of seeing oneself in a parallel universe through awe-inspiring visuals created using the C++ programming language as an algorithm. This interactive light installation displays a colorful slit sequence that responds to one’s movement from a high-definition projector.

Artist: Peem Poolpol

Location: Grand Postal Building

Lighting designer Peem Poolpol revisits the groundbreaking light showcase he staged at Awakening Bangkok 2018, Uncertainty of the Uniform, to conceptually narrate the continuation of an ongoing artistic endeavor. Unidirectional of the Uniform reimagines the infinity of time with a site-specific light showcase that casts lights from a single direction, in one uniform, stimulating a space where there seems to be no beginning nor an end. Just Visitors are welcome to return to the same spot and get lost in their own imagination.  

Artist: Cha-Poh-Khit

Location: Haroon Mosque Community 

Hunger pangs after a whole day at work are all too real, so you run towards the nearest street food joint to fill up. Cha-Poh-Kit stimulates this daily phenomenon by lighting up a mishmash of stuff found on the streets in yellow, the hue that’s relatively unique to street food places in Bangkok.

Artist: MHAPA 

Location: Haroon Mosque Community 

This immersive installation, inspired by the idea that all matters in the universe are connected to each other—think the geometric Flower of Life pattern seen in atoms and metatrons—wants people to explore and interpret their own journey through overlapping circles projected on the floor. 

Artist: MustStart

Location: Marine Police Lodge

Inspired by the concept of looking back to move forward, as well as fun childhood memories, MustStart creates a mini playground with glowing swings and hula hoops. This artwork suggests that the more we look back, the further we move forward.

Artist: Unplan

Location: Marine Police Lodge

Unplan founder and creative director Patamon Nisabodee explores the idea of existence, the interaction between beings, and the concept of past, present and future through an illuminated garden of butterflies, a symbolic creature that’s related to mysterious spiritual terms or theories (butterfly effect, butterfly kiss, butterfly hugs, etc.). According to the artist, touching and interacting with the spiritual creature makes us realize our existence and probably foresee enlightenment.

Artist: Don Boy

Location: The Grand Postal Building

Visual art collective Don Boy’s cutting-edge 3D mappings, projected on two new Mitsubishi city cars, are all about awakening your inner spirit and evoking your inner senses. Inspired by the young, hip and modern aesthetics of the Mitsubishi Attrage and Mitsubishi Mirage and the urbanites who sport them, Don Boy audio-visual art explores seven different themes: Bold, Extraordinary, Confident, Explorative, Curious, Creative and Unique.

Getting lost in Don Boy’s 3D mapping universe isn’t the only way you can enjoy Awaken Your Power; interactive features such as light tunnels, interactive projections and areas for chillaxing, invite patrons to take on a more active part in the show. Visitors are also encouraged to snap photos and share them on social media.

Artist: Round and Nine

Location: Marine Police Lodge

Round and Nine explores the contradiction between the aging facade of the Marine Police Lodge and a newly created graphic curtain. The artwork raises the question of whether the light installation should be there or not.

Artist: Yeast

Location: Marine Police Lodge

Yeast conceives the gentrification of Charoenkrung—the collision of the old and the new—as the three stages of alienation: departure, transition and arrival, and interprets them through three art installations in three different rooms. The first room acts as a decontamination room, swathed in white LED light that helps eliminate the viewers’ visuals of the outside world. The second room displays a ’90s TV set that shows distorted images of Charoenkrung, and features a floor padded with compressed sponges to give the feeling of transition. The final room represents absence and displays another set of distorted visions of Charoenkrung wrapped in a foggy mist -- as if it never exists.

Artist: Saturate Designs 

Location: O.P. Place

We’re surrounded by all things at moving at different speeds—fast or slow. And things always have the origin, transportation, and the arrival point of impact—only we don’t always see them. Transit reimagines these passages as the constant movement of trains, communicated using pre-programmed lighting, sounds and the arches of O.P. Place.

Artist: Saturate Designs 

Location: About White Cafe

Saturate Designs explores the blurry connection between Bangkok’s skyscraper-filled skyline and a bamboo forest. Both look peaceful and calm from the outside, but hide a complicated ecosystem within.

Artist: Splendour Solis

Location: Prince Theatre Heritage Stay

Splendour Solis returns to the Awakening Bangkok stage and to Prince Theatre Heritage Stay with a monumental piece that deals with the existence of things. This installation, a sequel to the work they exhibited at last year’s run, fills up the entrance to the theater-turned-hotel. Two massive mirrors, framed with bright, sight-blurring lights, face one another, allowing visitors to see infinite reflections of themselves. Through this installation, the art collective is trying to shed light on parts that exist even if they’re not seen, and likens their work to the sun—even though we don’t see it at night, it still shines on other parts of the world. 

Artist: ASITNAHC

Location: Prince Theatre Heritage Stay

Perhaps one of the most nerve-wracking installations this year, ASITNAHC’s The Alien examines the idea of the unknown, cloudy future, which includes contact with aliens or an extraterrestrial species we know nothing about. Communication with them may help us move forward—or may not.

Artist: H-Lab

Location: Prince Theatre Heritage Stay

This immersive art installation is constructed out of 50-meter LED tubes mounted into a circular shape with a curved mirror plunging down from the ceiling. Laser lights from the curved fisheye mirror point in different directions, illuminating the peripheral vision and changing one’s point of view from a horizontal perspective. The experience is enhanced by hazy mist and ambient sounds.

Artist: Slure Project by Alternative Universe

Location: Slure

Deeply inspired by Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” which discusses how humans perceive reality, creative group Alternative Universe turns its home, Slure, into a physical representation of the apologue. Another Side of the Darkness allows visitors to illuminate a darkened space in their own way, thus giving them a renewed appreciation of the importance of light. The first floor holds “The Cave,” the darkest room which only sees glimmers of light from the flashlights given to visitors. The second floor showcases “The Fire,” indicating the discovery of fire through different artistic displays. Lastly, “The Sun” on the third floor features bright light and natural elements representing what’s outside of the cave. The site-specific exhibition is co-designed by cinematographer Rapatchanun Cochaputsup, film director Sivaroj Kongsakul, and artist Tossapol Boonsinsukh.

Location: ICONSIAM

ICONSIAM, an Awakening Bangkok partner, celebrates its first anniversary and the festive year-end season with a golden lighting installation that takes over its entire riverfront promenade. This stunning extravaganza features massive glittering Christmas trees and light decorations inspired by traditional Thai stupas.