THE THAI-JAPAN CONTEMPORARY ART EXCHANGE PROGRAM 2007 is a collaboration between Nagoya University of Arts and King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang's Department of Fine Arts. The program aims to exchange art and cultural knowledge, hands-on experience and to share techniques on printmaking. The result is No Panic Print Art Exchange, a showcase of 31pieces of printmaking by the faculty and students of both institutes ( namely Decha warashoon, Mallika Mungkornwong, Kunjana Dumsopee, Anupong kachacheewa, Tanasan Pattana sutti chonlakun, Thanormnuan Dechakaneewong, Chizuru Kondo, Hiroshi Katayama, Masayuki Nishimura, Naomi Hasegawa and Shiori Anma). Each of the artists flaunts their skills in printmaking by applying diverse techniques like etching, lithograph, silkscreen and woodcut. We talk to two of the participating printmakers, Hiroshi Katayama and Kunjana Dumsopee, about their artworks.

 
Clockwise: Hiroshi, Kunchana, Dark Garden 2007, Scene # 12 (airplane)
 
The artist
Hiroshi Katayama
Kunchana Dumsopee
The profile

The 35-year-old, Osaka-born artist is an art instructor at Nagoya University of Arts

The 38-year-old, Thai artist is an art instructor at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology, Ladkrabang

The work
Scene # 12 (airplane)
Technique: lithograph
Size: 51 x 66 cm

Dark Garden 2007
Technique: lithograph
Size: 57 x 65 cm
The inspiration

When I did the work, I thought about my memories. They are faint, plain and usual because we canot keep a memory perfectly to compare with any particular moment. This image came from a movie. I saw it and took a lot of photos in my room. I looked at the photos again and they became new scenes, something separate from the original movie.

Last year I got a call telling me that my mother was bitten by a snake in our home garden. I felt horrified, scared and worried. I thought that a place that we might think is safe really isn’t necessarily so. This then became my inspiration for Dark Garden.

 
 
No Panic Printed Art Exchange is on display at La Lanta Fine Art until July 31