They’ve got their eyes on you

NEWLY RENAMED and billing itself as Bangkok’s new urban lifestyle venue, Gaysorn Village recently introduced a new chapter in its “Let It Be Love” campaign, joining with acclaimed illustrator Nualtong Prasarnthong to launch her “Eye on You” solo project.
Running until March 12, the exhibition is an adjunct to the Let It Be Love Marche for which a chunk of retail space has been given over to original jewellery and home furnishings from 28 new-wave local brands including Treat Eight, Omocha Zakka, Ora Clay and the Wood’s Tale.

A hand wearing a pearl ring welcomes visitors to the wonderland.     

“The Let It Be Love campaign is a retail theatre project offering customers an experience beyond the ordinary in a dynamic lifestyle setting. With its concept of ‘time well spent’, Gaysorn Village is a good place to share life and precious time with your loved ones while admiring Nualtong’s artistic styling and the love market,” says executive director Korakot Srivikorn. 
And there’s a lot of admire. Nualtong has decorated the Atrium Gallery with paintings, jewellery sets and 15-metre-high vertical installations crafted to resemble pearl necklaces. Hanging from the ceiling, the giant necklaces are fashioned from foam and metal sheeting and adorned with a wooden locket that displays a portrait of a pretty girl holding a black flower with gentle eyes falling down upon her. 

Nualtong creates portraits of women in different characters.

Inspired by Lovers’ eyes or eye miniatures as they are also known, Nualtong has borrowed an iconic jewellery design from the 18th century when the Prince of Wales (later King George IV of England) employed a miniaturist to paint his eye and enclose the rendering in a locket for his beloved as a token of his affection.
“The background to the Lovers’ eye is romantic and I wanted to present it in a pop-art style. I like to draw pearl necklaces in different designs and turn them into art installations. For the ‘Eye on You’ exhibition, I have added pink to my colour palette and combine it with basic black and white and graphic patterns to evoke a Valentine’s mood,” Nualtong says.

“The pieces are handcrafted from papier mache and the giant painting is designed to look like a vintage locket,” she adds.
Nualtong graduated in commerce and accounting from Chulalongkorn University before heading to Nottingham University in the UK for her master’s in design studies. On her return, she studied art with popular illustrator ML Chirathorn Chirapravati and is today well known for her casual yet mysterious styles. 
Her drawings, which almost always focus on the female form, regularly appear in Ploy Gam Petch magazine and on commercial packaging. Her inspirations come from her surroundings and she often adds a touch of fashion to her work with funky graphic patterns. 

This is the second time Nualthong has collaborated with Gaysorn Village. Her 2014 “A-Part-Ment” exhibition focused on the self-discovery of women in the setting of a 1920s 20-unit apartment block in which they all had rooms.
“Eye on You” features 26 acrylic paintings and 26 handmade jewellery sets that tell the story of 26 women travelling to different wonderlands with their lovers’ eye jewellery. The concept, she says, is to create unique jewellery pieces that reflect love and mutuality in terms of families, friends and sweethearts through a lovers’ eye motif.

“The eye miniatures became very popular in the 18th century as tokens of affection and usually depicted the eye or eyes of a spouse, loved one or child. In addition to lots of eyes, I’ve added hands and arms to the paintings to give a warm feeling and more expression to the lockets,” Nualtong explains.

Symbolic of a newly engaged woman, a giant statue of a hand wearing a Lovers’ eye ring sits at the gallery’s door and has quickly become the backdrop for a must-have selfie. Inside the gallery, visitors are immersed in a Wonderland experience surrounded by portraits of women, wild animals and plants on locket-inspired wooden frames.
“I want visitors to use their imagination so there are no captions on my works. I love sharing my ideas with viewers, who I am sure have many more fun stories than I do,” Nualtong says.
One painting is of a garden wedding and shows a beautiful bride walking through an arch of Lovers’ eye blossoms. Alongside, a cute girl in a black dress is surprised with a Lovers’ eye red rose during her date and a gentle-looking dwarf keeps his eyes on a girl wearing a vintage red turban – an avatar of Snow White perhaps? 

The hand-made jewellery sets featuring pins and necklaces are related to the portraits on show in the gallery. 
Nualthong also takes us to India, where a model in a white jumpsuit is sitting in an Indian-style bathtub and drawing attention from pedestrians while a bashful girl in a pink dress peers out from around the corner.
The gallery is also home to 26 hand-made jewellery items, each of them for sale. Each set of three pins or necklaces made from epoxy resin and brass is related to one of the 26 paintings and is contained in a glass bottle. They’re priced at Bt8,900 apiece. 
  

SO IN LOVE
>> The “Eye On You” exhibition continues to March 12 at Gaysorn Village. It’s open daily from 10am to 8pm. Find out more at www.GaysornVillage.com.