Chiang Mai gets creative
The second design week showcases plenty of interesting ideas
A POPSICLE stick that can tell your fortune, a lounge chair inspired by the traditional Thai sweet khanom sai sai and a 90-minute, four-hand massage treatment choreographed to specially composed Lanna music.
These are just some of the 130 creative ideas currently on show at the second edition of Chiang Mai Design Week. Held biannually, the event showcases the northern capital as a creative city, one with enormous potential for the integration of cultural identities and craftsmanship with new technology and innovative business models.
Based on the theme “New Originals” and compiling existing cultural assets and creative ideas with collaborative management, the showcases, international exhibitions, conferences, talks, workshops, art installations and markets are scattered around town , taking place in venues as varied as art and cultural centres, spas, coffee shops. temples and hotels.
Oasis Spa offers four-hand massage treatment choreographed to specially composed Lanna music.
While the first edition in 2014 featured some 50 showcases along Charoen Rat Road behind Wat Gate, this year’s two main venues are the Thailand Creative and Design Centre (TCDC) on Wichayanon Road and the areas around Three Kings Monument. They are within easy walking distance of each other and visitors can make the tour on foot, on a free-to-rent bicycle or by shuttle bus. Finding your way around is easy thanks to a comprehensive guidebook and signs are helpfully posted in front of each venue.
“With so much creative power and know-how, Chiang Mai can be developed into a creative city in the future. We are also trying to connect local designers and artisans with international organisations from France, Japan, Indonesia and the Netherlands through joint projects. Collaboration and e-commerce are the future trends in our field and while we already have several internationally recognised local brands, we want to ensure these remain known while also adding more,” says TCDC director Apisit Laistrooglai.
Wonderground exhibition from Indonesia presents lifestyle products representing the richness of sustainable materials.
Design Week director Inthaphan Buakeow points out that while the city is rich in cultural assets and crafts, work is needed on the integration of craftsmanship with creative design. “We want to support small guys with big ideas. Several local designers employ a high degree of artistry in the sense that they create works first before thinking about the market. Thanks to an open platform for dialogue and exchange of ideas and design knowledge, they will learn about their strong points and available marketing channels.”
Inspired by the protocol of performing siem see, the collective Party/Space/Design offers “Flower Fate Ice Cream”, which boasts popsicle sticks that can tell your fortunes.
Six groups of Bangkok-based designers/architects are showing how food can be blended with culture and design through the exhibition “Gastronomy Design – the New Age of Food Exploration” at Lanna Architecture Centre. Inspired by the Chinese practice of siem see, or fortune sticks, where you shake a container full of numbered sticks and the first to fall out indicates a similarly numbered printed fortune paper, the collective Party/Space/Design has come up with “Flower Fate Ice-Cream”. Visitors are invited to shake a stainless ice cream tank and pick up a popsicle stick. The ice cream flavours are extracted from edible flowers like rose, butterfly pea, jasmine and marigold and each stick has a number attached to it that will be revealed while the ice cream is being eaten.
“Chiang Mai has temples in almost every corner of the city and most people will shake the fortune sticks after paying respect to the Buddha. Similarly, the popsicle stick you pick will come with a number that you can compare with the available numbered fortune papers that we are reproducing here with the permission of Chiang Mai’s Wat Ton Kwaen. This food design project is a gimmick to add value to old-fashioned ice cream. As this frozen sweet is loved by people of all ages, it’s an easy language to communicate messages about spiritual belief,” says Kijtanes Kajornrattanadech.
Salt and Pepper Design Studio gives the brass khanom dok jok mould a modern flowershaped look.
Pipidh Khowsuwa and Anchana Thongpaitoon from Salt and Pepper Design Studio are eager to see a Thai cooking utensil that is not only functional, but also stylish enough to double as a home decorative item. The couple has come up with a prototype of the brass mould used for crispy snack khanom dok jok, redesigned using a spirograph technique to create flower shapes.
“People like beautiful kitchenware and many modern homes are decorated with attractive coffee-makers and pots and pans but most of them are international brands. We want to develop Thai kitchen tools to the same level of recognition,” says Pipidh.
Textile designer Marisa Lerdrakmongkol’s chef uniform and hat narrate Northern foods and ingredients through printed patterns.
Inspired by Northern foods, textile designer Marisa Lerdrakmongkol has come up with a chef’s uniform and hat printed with her illustrations of ingredients, Northern delicacies and names of foods that are unfamiliar to people in different regions.
Inspired by the shape of khan tok, three side tables by Thaneeya Yuktadatta are accompanied by a lighting design that corresponds to three of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s compositions.
FOS Lighting Design by Thaneeya Yuktadatta has a set of three acrylic side tables inspired by the shape of khan tok – the Northern-style pedestal tray used as a small dining table. Each table plays with light art and gives off illuminations reminiscent of sundown, starlight and moonlight that correspond with His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s compositions –“Love at Sundown”, “Never Mind the HM Blues” and “Magic Beams”.
Saowaluk Korsakwattana crafts paper in the form of the deities Guan Yin and Ganesha at Wat Duangdee, and invites visitors to perform the Chinese fortune telling practice known as siem see.
Another design group plays with the exhibition space at Wat Duangdee – literally, good luck temple – for their project called Get Lucky, representing beliefs of faith and fortune through paper tole, gilded lacquerware, mosaics and textile.
Saowaluk Korsakwattana crafts paper in the form of deities Guan Yin and Ganesha using the technique known as paper tole, which involves cutting, shaping and gluing cut-outs in layers using silicon to create a 3D picture. The chanting texts are also available for any worshipers to pay respect. Visitors are also invited to perform siem see and read their fortune at the printed fortune telling cards she has reproduced from the ones kept at Wat Leng Noei Yi, the most important Chinese Buddhist temple in Bangkok.
Wiwat Saelee’s treelike sculpture made of ceramic mosaic tiles with hidden numbers criticises those who rely on luck rather than faith.
For his part, Wiwat Saelee explores superstition through a tree-like sculptural piece made out of ceramic mosaic tiles and coloured glass with a makeup mirror attached on the top. A closer look at the mosaic tiles reveals the hidden numbers.
“Many people find lucky numbers by rubbing a tree they believe is sacred. Yet the very essence of the tree is overlooked because of the reliance on luck. You need to look deep inside to see the spiritual,” says Wiwat.
Brass desk organiser set Thaigram by Coth Studio invites you to relieve tension with a creative puzzle.
“The patterns of the geometric pieces are twisted from the traditional design of decorative elements found in temples such as roof tiles, mouldings and walls. The eight pieces can be arranged in more than 400 different ways,” says Chalermkiat Somdulyawat.
After attending workshops at the Northern Neurological Centre and Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of Chiang Mai University and visiting handicraft villages, the young team came up with a bamboo support structure that can be attached to the bed to support the body to move, stand or sit.
There are also a pair of suppleness rings for stretching made from fabric scraps, a lightweight wooden crutch made of bamboo and rattan, a bamboo toy that can be squeezed to strengthen the wrists and arms, as well as a wooden board game with different handgrips.
LAST CHANCE TO VISIT
Today is the final day of Chiang Mai Design Week 2016.
For details, call (052) 080 500 or visit www.ChiangmaiDesignWeek.com.
