“Empty/Occupied?” by Kobkit Thitithanawat
Kobkit Thitithanawat is a young Thai artist based in Bangkok, Thailand. With his eyes for simplistic beauty, his project “Empty/Occupied?” is profoundly simple yet able to raises such interesting questions about life during COVID-19.
In the midst of the pandemic we are advised to keep a social distance, and sure enough different countries have their own interesting ways of enforcing the regulation. In Thailand we often see seats marked with an ‘X’ sign indicating that they are to remain vacant. However, a question arises whether this is an effective way to keep social distance. “On public transportations like a bus or metro, these empty seats make it’s even more crowded because most of them have to stand.” Kobkit also raise another important question, do people really follow this prevention measure? and do we? Kobkit is able to raise the question so effectively yet subtly through a social cue, which has become familiar to us during the past year.
Check out his previous work on our 'Photographer Highlight' HERE