Abstract

Artworks are the depiction of people, place, culture, tradition, time, and history. Artworks carry messages that stimulate innovative tourism enhancement. Artworks have contributed to society with consequences in aesthetic innovation, societal shift, societal design, creative revolution, and cultural transformation. When audiences view an artwork, the artwork relays message to its audiences, which provokes the reactions from the audiences. A meaningful communication occurs if there is a successful message passed from the artist’s artwork to the audiences. This paper used a series of paintings from a tourist’s viewpoint—"Portraits of Thailand”—and a series of contrasting photographs and paintings side-by-side with those portraits as the competing perspectives to discuss the notions that art may mimic people, place, culture, and tradition; depict change in society; and establish a linkage between art and tourism development. This study developed a visual exhibition to survey three main themes of artworks portraying characteristics of life and life subjects: art is for cultural identity, fusion, harmony, proportion, knowledge progression, and design language; art creates social relation, sites of activity, and spiritual practice space; and art is for environmental action, participation, and cultural transformation. Artwork is no longer conceived as a finished object, but as an open platform for participation and generation of relational content. Based on this relational aesthetics participation protocol, this study attempted to use virtual exhibition of paintings as the discussion platform to understand how art represents life and what coded messages within a specific cultural context it may infer. This study confirmed that art emulates society, communicates with audiences, and influences creative tourism development.