Moving Sculpture

One can maneuver around a sculpture, viewing it from many perspectives to gain new insight into its beauty from different angles. Likewise, Jitti’s movement creation approach manipulates the body through a 360-degree lens. Body parts are purposefully shaped in light of the perspective from which they are gazed. The viewer is static but the dancing body becomes a moving sculpture, constantly shifting the perspective of the body for the spectator. Jitti molds postures of the body based on the unique proportions of different body types to find the ideal movement for each individual.

The Khon mask is a sculpture that Jitti minimalizes by reducing adornments and colors. Jitti is fascinated by the ability that the Khon mask holds to portray a spectrum of emotions through movement. A shift in angular degrees of the head at a specific time can convey a significant change in the character’s state of being and expression. Whether it be a traditionally adorned mask or an undecorated bare mask, the effectiveness of communication depends on how well the performer precisely directs his movement and timing based on the character's role.

Dance Scenography and Landscape

While dance is traditionally performed on a horizontal plane, Jitti incites the question of what can happen if the plane is turned upright. He utilizes a bare vertical canvas as a landscape to create compositions with moving sculptures. In Jitti’s viewpoint, a vertical plane does not restrict a performance to flatness or proscenium. On this canvas, he embodies characters from the Ramakien through lines and contours of the body.

One can contemplate that the figures and movements in Jitti’s work reflect those of traditional mural paintings by which both can narrate the same story but through different methods. Mural paintings tell their stories through two-dimensional modes that involve the filling in of flat colors into intricate figures without the use of perspective or shadows. Stories are told through tableaux that stretch along extensive walls. In contrast, Jitti utilizes the movement of three-dimensional bodies to transform one piece of canvas into dynamic illustrations. The sole interaction of human bodies on a minimal plane can conjure a sense of poetry and tradition that is inherent in traditional Thai visual arts.

Site-Specific Performance

Presenting dance in unusual spaces away from the traditional theatre stage is a concrete way to engage people more in the projects. It allows the audience to engage with the performers personally since every audience member sits close to or even within the performance space. My pieces play with both recognition and strangeness and may evoke various meanings such as hidden feelings lurking within every human. At first sight, the performance can appear as something captivating to contemplate and it slowly transforms to be a landscape where we find ourselves to live in.

I also think architecture at its pinnacle form can be considered as a monumental artwork. When one enters into a polished and well-designed space, that person is filled, often unconsciously, with some kind of emotion conveyed by the specific combination of shapes, textures, colors, light, and shadow of the space, in the same way as someone experiences the view of an art piece in a museum or traditional stage. Thus, it is the premise to use architecture and various forms of space as a canvas for creations.