Sermkhun Kunawong, the chief executive at CM Organiser and the man behind the Bangkok Sculpture Centre, has organised chiselled features of a different kind in the multimedia show "Symbol, Stream, Stone and Surrender".

Continuing until Monday, it's part of The Glitz, the luxurious-lifestyle extravaganza at Siam Paragon.

The main focus is 30 high-contrast black-and-white photographs of male and female nudes, which Sermkhun swears were inspired by Western depictions of Adam and Eve.

"S" - as in Sermkhun - hisses into the names of four categories for the photos. The Symbol collection is primarily about male muscle, and Stream has gently refined portraits of both genders. Bodies really do look like sculptures in the Stone series, and the models in the Surrender pictures are tied up with rope.

One photo has a body in the buff perched like Auguste Rodin's "The Thinker" - a man in sober meditation undergoing a powerful internal struggle. Several works are reminiscent of the graceful sculptures of Khien Yimsiri and Chamruang Vichienket, who happen to be Sermkhun's favourite artists. You can see the likeness in the slightly bent heads and the easy sway of the torsos from the neck to the hips.

Sermkhun earned a degree in photography at Chulalongkorn University but his collecting got the better of him, to the point where his Bangkok Sculpture Centre now boasts 202 pieces dating back to 1901.

"I always enjoyed taking photos and admiring every angle of an object," says the 47-year-old, "but I still wasn't fully appreciating three-dimensional objects. When I recognised their virtues I started collecting pieces, beginning with traditional hun luang [puppets of the royal court] and hun lakorn lek [miniature puppets], and then sculptures."

The "multimedia" part of the Glitz exhibition involves collages and 3-D slides, for which viewers must wear polarising glasses.

See the show daily until Monday from 10 to 10 in the Living Gallery on the third floor of Siam Paragon. Call (02) 559 0505 or visit www.TheGlitzBangkok.com.

By Khetsirin Pholdhampalit

Daily Xpress

come see the

sculpture garden

>> Sermkhun started collecting art eight years ago in a bid to learn more about sculpture's development. He decided to share his passion with the public by opening the Bangkok Sculpture Centre on Soi Nuanchan 56 off Ram-Indra Road. It's open every second and fourth Saturday. You have to book a viewing, at (02) 559 2364-9, extension 119 or 129, or through www.BangkokSculptureCenter.org.

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