The self-portraits of Kamolpan Chotvichai

Based on the Buddha’s teaching on ‘anatta’ (no self), Bangkok-based artist Kamolpan Chotvichaidissolves her own image, usually printed on paper, to express certain ideas and emotions.

She challenges human attachment to self-existing, as she believes that “the idea of this self-existing is actually self-formed and leads to variety of emotions”. And, as she continues: “The temper, the mind and the body altogether gradually form the idea of being alive but when putting into consideration, without any substance, it is merely the thought that we think we are existing”.

Further explaining the creation process, she says that: “The way I create my work is to set consciousness and concentration by slitting and cutting on the portrait of myself which is considered to be the unconditional action of effort and attempt. This action is therefore to destroy and create the emptiness which will lead to the stage of naught”.

It is interesting how in this series of self-portraits, the use of juxtapositions, of how light and dark interconnect or separate, results in powerful highlights of an illusory self, bringing to surface the essence, a state of mind that becomes possible through the act of dissolution, of complete detachment.

Substance

Person

Suffering

Impermanence

Sorrower

Painfulness

View more on her website.