purin phanichphant

The ticking clock never stops. Second after second, time drifts away without end and there’s not a thing anyone can do about. We take time seriously in our day-to-day lives, but is time real or is it merely a construct created by our human mind? Perhaps now is all that exists, the exact date and time merely labels, and the past and future merely illusions. The Time Is Now (2020) presents an alternative take on a mundane clock mechanism, which normally tells us what time it is based on the standard sexagesimal convention created by the Babylonians and the Sumerians. Instead, the seconds hand moving from one now to the next, with no indication of time except for now, reminding the viewer to be in the present.

Please contact the gallery for more information about Purin Phanichphant’s work.

about the artist

With his roots in Northern Thailand, where he spent part of his life as a Buddhist monk, combined with his background in Human-Computer Interaction and designing innovative products and experiences in San Francisco Bay Area, Purin’s work explores themes of language and cross-cultural translations, human-machine coexistence and collaboration, as well as the tension between dogmatic rules and spontaneous expression. His media often incorporates buttons, knobs, and screens, combined with a touch of code, resulting in simple, playful, and interactive experiences for the audience.

Purin’s work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and institutions across the U.S., Japan, Thailand, and Iceland. He holds a BFA in Industrial Design and Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MFA in Product Design from Stanford University. Prior to becoming an artist, he worked as a principal product designer at IDEO San Francisco. He has taught design courses at Stanford University, General Assembly, and is currently a Design Fellow at UC Berkeley.