Stretching along Nakhon Phanom in northeast Thailand, the Phu Phan mountain range is as rich in history – as a former Cold War pressure point – as it is in natural beauty. In his exhibition “The Boundary of Solitude,” Vacharanont Sinvaravatn centers this rumbling tension by juxtaposing vastness and density in tightly composed landscapes. In Phu Phan at sunset, 2023, it unleashes verdant curves—a choreography of pivoting wrists of tiny, jostling heels—against a flat-painted crimson sky. This scattering evokes a sense of oscillating motion, inviting to delve into Phu Phan’s layered heritage. The battle for dominance between the two colors echoes the contrast between nature’s vegetative lushness and politicized “red zones” – a historical reference to the color scale the Thai government used to designate the level of infiltration communist in conflict zones.
Silently, unease creeps in, as Sinvaravatn adopts guerrilla tactics to subtly pierce the illusion of the nation-state. The artist sows his canvases with clandestine structures: an empty checkpoint (Checkpoint2023), an abandoned airstrip (The secret airport2022), a solemn sculpture in a clearing (The monument of peace, 2022). Minimal in size, these relics of a conflicted era seem crumpled under the weight of the surrounding trees, whose foliage is woven with mahogany, semi-parallel lines and hazy, hazy outlines. Like a final ode to Phu Phan, Sinvaravatn unravels its thoughts in a jumble of dark vines across a jade green sky in the creeper2022, fusing personal memories with the mountains and continuing the tradition of seeking solace in nature.
