Propellant

15 OCTOBER – 6 NOVEMBER 2022

Solo ART Exhibition by MrPalette

Venue: Bangkok Art & Culture Center (BACC), 1st Floor, ArtHUB 104

Propellant begins with a simple yet powerful observation: a rocket can rise into the sky using a propellant made from sugar and saltpeter—materials that are ordinary, accessible, and often overlooked. Through the SpaceAC Project, this unlikely combination demonstrates how modest elements can generate enough force to challenge gravity itself.

This phenomenon became a metaphor for the social realities surrounding me. In a world where inequality often appears overwhelming, meaningful change rarely emerges from a single heroic act. Instead, it grows through the accumulation of small energies—shared efforts, mutual support, and collective imagination. Like a propellant composed of simple ingredients, transformation can begin with resources that already exist within families, communities, and everyday life.

At the center of this exhibition are StrayPups, a group of wandering space dogs who travel across the cosmos aboard sugar-powered rockets. Neither heroes nor conquerors, they are dreamers navigating uncertainty, carrying with them curiosity, resilience, and hope. Their journeys reflect the aspirations of those who continue moving forward despite social and economic limitations.

Throughout the works, rockets fueled by sugar leave behind trails of cotton candy instead of flames. Inspired by the physical transformation of sugar under heat, these soft clouds replace the visual language of combustion with one of tenderness and imagination. What is typically associated with power, speed, and conquest becomes playful, fragile, and poetic.

In Propellant, the rocket is not only a vehicle. It is a symbol of possibility. The sugar that powers it represents the latent potential hidden within ordinary lives, while the cotton-candy exhaust traces the dreams that accompany every attempt to rise. Together, these images propose a simple question: how far might we travel if small acts of care, cooperation, and hope were recognized as forces powerful enough to overcome gravity?