bangkok Report

IN THE NEW SIAM Refusing to be constrained by tradition, neglect or touristic clichés, vanguard Thai artists deftly engage the modern world. BY GREGORY GALLIGAN

Since the late 1990s “Asian contemporary” has been largely defined by the progressive Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian art featured in global biennials, museum shows, commercial galleries and auctions. Recently, however, the bursting of the economic bubble in the world’s most highly developed nations has allowed avant-garde art in Southeast Asia—Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and even politi- cally oppressed Myanmar—to emerge from the shadows and offer new possibilities for the future. At the center of this development is the contemporary art scene of Thailand, currently concentrated in Bangkok, the nation’s capital, and Chiang Mai, a comparatively relaxed city in the northwestern region of the country. (The provincial out- post—relatively cheap and milder in climate—offers residency programs, collectives, a university arts center and a small but growing number of Manit Sriwanichpoom: Pink Man Opera #3: Do not export family secrets; commercial galleries, all some 430 do not import trouble from outside, miles away from the grimy turmoil of of the 1990’s. Long identified with 2009, C-print, 20 by 24 inches. Bangkok.) Over the past two decades, Thailand, where he has resided on and the country’s experimental artists have off over the years, the globe-trotting increasingly exhibited in Asia, America artist continues to inspire a new gen- and Europe. In addition, Thailand eration of Bangkok-based colleagues, corruption, political factionalism and has sponsored a national pavilion at who tend to be less interested in paint- raucous, even violent social upheaval. four consecutive Venice Biennales ing and sculpture than in time-based Earlier this year, the looming specter since 2003, a record unmatched by and often interactive projects. of a return to power by former prime any of its Southeast Asian neighbors. A constitutional monarchy since 1932 minister Thaksin Shinawatra weighed Sculptor and installation artist Montien with a current population of 65 million, heavily on the capital’s contemporary Boonma (1953-2000), known for meld- Thailand is sometimes patronizingly art community. Elected by popular ing Buddhist beliefs with a modernist described in the international press vote in 2001, Shinawatra was driven sensibility, was posthumously honored as a “land of smiles”—a stereotype from office by a military coup in 2006, by a major retrospective—“Montien fostered by the country’s indefati- after being widely accused of subvert- Boonma: Temple of the Mind”—at New gable tourism industry, which plays ing the constitution and abusing his York’s Asia Society and Museum in to the West’s persistent desire to see position for personal profit. Although 2003 [see A.i.A., Feb. ’04]. And Rirkrit Southeast Asia as a Bali Hai of sensual Thailand’s progressive artists doubtless Tiravanija, born in Brazil in 1961 to Thai indulgences. At the same time, this benefited from Shinawatra’s promotion parents, gained worldwide attention primarily Buddhist nation, though never of rapid modernization and “boutique” with his food-sharing “stir fry” events colonized, has long been beset by civic consumerism, most of them regard

June /July’10 art in america 67 the self-made telecommunications tycoon as an unqualified enemy of open expression and a free press. At this writing, his supporters continue to rally, although Shinawatra himself has gone into hiding in Cambodia, following the confiscation of $1.4 billion of his assets by the Thai supreme court.

One tangible outcome of Thailand’s accelerated moderniza- tion since the turn of the millennium is the capital’s new municipally spon- sored contemporary art museum, the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC), which opened in the fall of 2008 after a decade of intense lob- bying by Bangkok’s vanguard art community. (Many were irate that the National Gallery of Thailand, in a city awash with historical sites and museums, offers only a tiny collection of modernist art and a few hit-or- miss shows of contemporary work.) Viewed from its cavernous atrium, the divergent directions. Largely honorific The Bangkok Art and BACC’s nine levels—two additional or socially didactic shows—local art Culture Centre’s subterranean floors accommodate school graduation thesis surveys, eclecticism stems from an art library and a capacious audi- tributes to the royal court—alternate its late arrival on an torium—draw one’s eye up a series with more scholarly undertakings. art scene already of concentrically stacked rings. No Typical of the latter, “Krungthep 226” well developed—and philosophically inspired nautilus, the brought together architectural models, structure was conceived as a consum- replicas of classical murals, paintings, one about to evolve er magnet, sited within a stone’s throw sculptures, photographs and numer- beyond all recognition. of Bangkok’s new luxury shopping ous other works (the roster exceeded mecca, Siam Paragon. In fact, the first 100 artists) to celebrate Bangkok’s three stories above the rotunda were modernization. (“Krungthep” is a short designed to accommodate brand- form of the city’s elaborate ceremonial designed or contributed to 18 figurative name retailers; the art museum proper name, and 226 the number of years monuments in Thailand, nine of them begins on the fifth floor. from Bangkok’s formal inception as a in Bangkok. Although his own work After dealing with myriad infrastruc- municipality to the 2008 exhibition.) remained formally conventional, Feroci ture problems (the building, by the Between the late fall of 2009 and the founded a school in 1937 that quickly American-run, Bangkok-based firm early spring of 2010, three succes- became a conduit for various modernist Robert G. Boughey and Associates, sive BACC exhibitions—“Twist and “-isms” from abroad and expanded, originally lacked proper lighting sys- Shout,” “Trans-Cool Tokyo” and “Thai in 1943, into Silpakorn University, tems and adequate security features), Yo”—testified to the local appeal of Bangkok’s premier art academy. Artists acting BACC director Chatvichai contemporary art and popular cul- of the immediate post-Feroci/Bhirasri era Promadhattavedi has achieved a deli- ture from Japan. The first two shows are today some of the country’s most cate balance between the museum’s surveyed young Japanese artists; the accomplished practitioners, sharing commercial and nonprofit aspects, third presented 30 Thai artists and his intense regard for artworks as well- carefully orchestrating a number of designers influenced by manga and wrought objects of visual contemplation. small shops and display areas—art other vernacular Japanese sources. Painter and sculptor Chatchai Puipia galleries and temporary project spaces It may well be that the BACC’s eclec- (b. 1964), for example, makes expres- as well as privately run art supply ticism stems from its late arrival to an sionistic self-portraits that reflect a stores, cafés and specialty book- art scene already well developed—and troubled personal attempt to recon- shops—within the “Art-rium” section of one about to evolve beyond all recogni- cile Thai cultural heritage with the the building. The museum’s long-term tion. Western-style modern art made new world of unbridled consumer- mission, however, awaits full articula- its first inroads in Thailand in the 1920s, ism (and simultaneous political and tion. Under Promadhattavedi, whose with the arrival in Bangkok (by invitation social unrest). For the “Pink Man” status remains tentative despite his of King Rama VI) of the Italian academic photo series (1997-present), Manit expertise in cultural development, sculptor Corrado Feroci (1892-1962). Sriwanichpoom (b. 1961) photographs the BACC has attempted to be all Also known as Silpa Bhirasri (a name a Thai everyman, played repeatedly by things to all audiences, its exhibi- he adopted as a permanent expatriate the same model in various urban cir- tions tugging one’s attention in widely and highly influential teacher), the artist cumstances. Dressed in a trademark

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Left, view of Pinaree Sanpitak’s whose stylized alms bowls, lotus blos- The Mirror, 2009 (foreground), soms and breast-stupa forms provide a and Brilliant Blue, 2008 (on wall). Courtesy Tyler Rollins Fine Art, respite from ceaseless urban confusion. New York. Richard Tsao (b. 1954), long based in New York but closely linked to his Right, Surat Osathanugrah: Thaka Floating Market, Mahasarakham Thai homeland, creates thickly layered, Province, 1999, inkjet print mounted encrusted canvases distantly influenced on aluminium, 58 3⁄4 by 39 inches; by Abstract Expressionism and Color at Bangkok University Gallery. Field painting but with a palette born in Below, Jakapan Vilasineekul: the flower market of Bangkok. The Lost Angel, 2004, Thai canoe, Other artists in the Feroci/Bhirasri bronze dolls, sand, motors and lineage combine their studio practice mixed mediums; in “Traces of a Siamese Smile” at the Bangkok Art with university teaching. Jakapan and Culture Centre. Vilasineekul (b. 1964), on the faculty of Silpakorn University, makes wry, large-scale assemblages that mix found objects (e.g., a stuffed elephant’s head) with created forms. Be Takerng Pattanopas (b. 1965), of Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok’s Harvard), evokes the vul- nerability of the human body, and the presence later trained in conceptualist and of inner spirituality, in process-oriented methods at the highly steel sculptures that experimental Staatliche Hochschule allow one to peep into für Bildende Künste (Städelschule) illuminated cavities filled in Frankfurt. This background has with intense color. Kamol become fairly typical, as many new- Phaosavasdi (b. 1958), generation Thai have studied and/or also of Chulalongkorn, shown their work abroad. After gradu- frequently employs ation, Phinthong made a three-month multiple video moni- overland journey home to Thailand. His tors to show sublime solo debut, “Missing Objects” (2005), landscapes and other at Chulalongkorn University Art Center, meditative subjects. featured a host of items—empty Jakkai Siributr (b. 1969), cigarette packs, color photographs, a former studio instructor cryptic writings, inkjet posters, tourist at Silpakorn University, souvenirs and other chance ephem- stitches together swaths era—collected by the artist during the of popular Thai fabrics, course of his pilgrimage. Documenting turning the works’ col- a gradual process of self-reclamation, laged surfaces into the show was in part an homage to backgrounds for sewn Phinthong’s then recently deceased “drawings” of animal and father, who had once bid adieu to human characters. an urbane life of academic studies in order to assume the role of a Buddhist Younger artists tend to monk in a rural temple. view the Feroci/Bhirasri Much of Bangkok’s avant-garde legacy as a dated tradi- activity has been spurred by the cul- pink suit (the color is associated with tion to be transcended in favor of more ture ministry’s Office of Contemporary bar girls, comedians and other socially esthetically radical approaches. Navin Art and Culture (OCAC; instituted in marginalized types) and accompanied Rawanchaikul (b. 1971), often working 2002), which from 2003 to early 2009 by a matching pink shopping cart, this through the artist collaborative Navin was headed by the curatorial “dean” deadpan character stands immobi- Production Co., Ltd., creates comic of Thai modern and contemporary lized before the mad spectacle of Thai books, interactive projects (notably art, Apinan Poshyananda. Holding a retail commerce and touristic “history” several involving taxicabs), installations Cornell University PhD and the author displays. Painter and installation art- and Bollywood-style billboards that of Modern Art in Thailand: Nineteenth ist Pinaree Sanpitak (b. 1961) offers comically address wide-ranging topical and Twentieth Centuries (Oxford, something else altogether—meditative issues. Pratchaya Phinthong (b. 1974), 1992), Poshyananda is best known to canvases and sculptural arrangements a graduate of Silpakorn University, was Western audiences as the organizer of

June /July’10 art in america 69 The tension between devoted to emerging Thai talents, many adventuresome, mostly foreign, muse- social cohesion and fresh out of art school. This spring, to ums. Dealers, rarely able to undertake unfettered individualism mark the school’s 40th anniversary, the cost of participating in global art is aptly expressed in BUG showcased black-and-white shots fairs, do most of their business on site, Tawan Wattuya’s group of everyday objects by the prize win- sometimes via the Internet. Known ning photographer Surat Osathanugrah for its early championing of Thai con- portraits of people (1930-2008), a mega-businessman temporary art, Numthong Gallery similarly dressed, with and founder of the university, who at (founded 1990) opened a new space smeared, anonymous faces. various times headed Thailand’s min- at the BACC last winter. In February, istries of commerce, transport and the 100 Tonson Gallery, which concentrates interior. BUG curator Ark Fongsmut on contemporary Asian and Western broke with Osathanugrah’s usual prac- masters, presented “Living Room,” a tice by arranging with the artist’s heirs collaboration conceived by the 29-year- “Contemporary Art in Asia: Traditions/ to print the images at large scale for Tensions” (1996) and the aforemen- this posthumous show. tioned “Montien Boonma: Temple of Since the 1990s, Bangkok has the Mind,” both for New York’s Asia generated a plethora of commercial Society. He currently sits on the peri- spaces scattered throughout the odically convened Asian Art Council, city, selling to both Thai and inter- a think tank directed by Alexandra national collectors as well as some

Above, Tawan Wattuya: 24 University Girls, 2009, watercolor on paper, 2½ by 14¾ feet; in “Uniform/Uniformity” at Tang Contemporary Art.

Left, Kamol Phaosavasdi: Memories Haunt, 2003, video, 10 minutes.

Below, exterior and interior views of Be Takerng Pattanopas’s HAL-0-2, 2007, mixed mediums with LEDs, approx. 75 by 36 by 10 inches.

Munroe, senior curator of Asian Art at the Guggenheim Museum, New York. Under Poshyananda’s direction, the OCAC has funded Thai artists’ residen- cies abroad, helped organize domestic art festivals and international exhibi- tions, and hosted various symposia and other events aimed at developing a new generation of Thai art administrators. Academic institutions usually feature campus-based galleries or art centers, the most striking of which is Bangkok University Gallery (BUG), ensconced in a quasi-Bauhaus structure designed by the Thai firm Office of Architectural Transition. Launched in 1996, the gal- lery has, since 2003, organized the annual juried exhibition “Brand New,”

70 art in america June /July’10 Bangkok report old curator Thanavi Chopradit. Drawing oriented shows. Thavibu Gallery car- and exhibits textile-related work by inspiration from a 1969 sound installa- ries work from Thailand, Vietnam and contemporary artists from around the tion by the American composer Alvin Myanmar, and Sombat Permpoon world. In early 2010, she collaborated Lucier, Chopradit brought together Gallery, a 30-year-old institution spe- with the feng shui master Kotchakorn works by four Thai visual and sound cializing in Thai modern masters, has Promchai to mount “Golden Tiger/ artists: wall sculptures made of ani- recently begun to market contemporary Hidden Monkey: Astrology, Art, Life,” a mal skulls encrusted with beads and art as well. show examining how faith (especially as baubles by Kata Sangkhae (b. 1976), a manifest in Brahma Jati, the Siamese video projection of perpetually shifting Alternative art spaces can horoscope) and science mutually con- abstract forms by Prinda Setabundhu also be found throughout Bangkok. tribute to our everyday understanding (b. 1967) and a soundtrack of random The artist Pratchaya Phinthong long of reality. A hand-painted 19th-century pops, pings, echoes and drumbeats— doubled as director of Gallery Ver, Thai manuscript on the Brahma Jati playing through eight freestanding, an alternative space founded in (purchased by Thompson from Dutch

totemlike speakers—by composers 2000 by Rirkrit Tiravanija with art missionaries) was displayed along Jiradej Setabundhu (b. 1967) and critic Phatarawadee Phataranawik and with colorful, astrologically inspired Anothai Nitibhon (b. 1978). then-curator Chitti Kasemkitvatana. costumes by the young designer Also of note are H Gallery, show- Launched as a publishing venture, the Roj Singhakul. Animation on the sub- casing Thai and Southeast Asian gallery still intermittently issues the ject of the 12 signs of the Thai zodiac contemporary artists, and Kathmandu small-circulation VER magazine. In was contributed by Wisut Ponnimit Photo Gallery (run by Manit March 2010, the facility relocated (b. 1976), while Kamol Phaosavasdi Sriwanichpoom and independent film from a relatively remote loft space on offered Open the Sky (2009), a sus- producer Ing Kanchanavanich), its the left side of the Chao Phraya River pended cocoon filled with cloth, bookstore and exhibition spaces tucked to a shophouse on the right bank in perfume and a meditative soundtrack, into an intimate shophouse (a storefront Phra Nakhon, the centrally situated within which visitors could have their with residence above) in Bangkok’s Divine City (the seat, since its rise to fortunes read by Thai cosmologists. Little India. Both Catherine Schubert power in 1782, of the still-ruling Chakri The experimental programming Gallery and Tang Contemporary Art Dynasty). There, Gallery Ver continues mix at the JTAC (which also boasts (with offshoots in Beijing and Hong to serve as an exhibition and brain- a public research library) grew out of Kong) represent contemporary Asian storming locale for many of Bangkok’s Gaweewong’s involvement with the art, with an emphasis on China. In younger artists, steeped in French alternative Bangkok art scene of the early 2010, Tang mounted “Uniform/ deconstructionist theory, semiotics late 1990s, when she headed Project Uniformity,” a show of recent water- and socio-critical practices. 304, a gallery and artists’ collective colors by Tawan Wattuya (b. 1973), in The Jim Thompson Art Center (JTAC) that was active between 1996 and which the prevailing tension between is a decidedly hybrid institution, found- 2004. Memories of Project 304 the Thai ideal of social cohesion and ed in 2003 at the Jim Thompson House (which survives today as a Web- today’s push toward unfettered individ- historic site (a complex of six tradition- based “nonsite”) still reverberate with ualism found an apt metaphor in group al-style teak houses brought together the younger Gallery Ver generation. portraits of schoolgirls, military officers by an American-born, mid-20th-century In early 2009, another artist and others more or less uniformly silk merchant) and directed since 2006 collective, As Yet Unnamed/Not dressed (or, in one instance, uniformly by Gridthiya Gaweewong, recipient Yet in Progress—originally formed nude like workers in some Bangkok of an MA degree from the School of at Project 304 a decade earlier— sex emporiums), their faces occasion- the Art Institute of Chicago and one reconvened for an extended run at ally smeared into anonymity. Gallery of Bangkok’s most respected interna- About Café, a downtown alternative Soulflower represents East Indian as tional curators. Gaweewong organizes space founded in the mid-1990s by well as Thai artists, while Conference of thematic shows drawn from the silk local arts patron Klaomard Yipintsoi Birds focuses on politically and socially company’s archives and collections, (granddaughter of the nationally

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famous artist Misiem Yipintsoi), who Bangkok’s private collectors keep Promoted as a “land of is known for helping to support a low profile but play an important smiles” offering countless exhibitions, artist project spaces role—buying and caring for progres- sensuous indulgences, this and various happenings on an ad sive art at a time when Thailand’s mostly Buddhist nation hoc basis. A new manifesto proudly museums lack any concerted has long been beset by recalled the collective’s 1998-99 acquisitions policy and commercial inaugural exhibition—a freewheel- banks, the other major buyers, col- civic corruption, ing installation comprising numerous lect only conservative Thai modern political factionalism and process-based, interactive and works. Petch Osathanugrah, son of raucous social upheaval. mixed-media works—and derided the Bangkok University founder and the last decade as one marred by himself now its leading trustee, has the machinations of city politicians. amassed one of the more extensive A resolutely independent spirit also collections of contemporary Thai Beurdeley and Chansiri are open to the general public (by appointment); the others remain accessible solely through personal invitation. Last February, Michael Shaowanasai, a Bangkok artist-provocateur and indie film star (The Adventure of Iron Pussy, 2003), presented “In the House by the Canal” at Whitespace, an exhibi- tion venue in the office quarters of a downtown architectural firm. The show’s black-and-white portrait pho- tographs and color video document the near disaster of the 2009 Venice Biennale, where Shaowanasai and four other artists representing Thailand ral- lied furiously to create an entirely new group installation after their artworks failed to arrive in time for the official vernissage. “Gondola al Paradiso Co., Jakkai Siributr: Ltd.,” both as originally designed and Yantra, 2010, as improvised on the spot, took the mixed mediums form of a mock tourist agency that on canvas, 64 feigned the legendary Thai service by 63 inches. Courtesy Tyler ethic while lampooning the hypocrisy Rollins Fine Art. of disguising Thailand’s fractious social reality [see A.i.A., June/July ’09]. Ironically, few people in the Thai intel- informs the Reading Room, a pri- painting in the region; so, too, has ligentsia even took note of the Venice vately owned artists’ space founded Jean-Michel Beurdeley, a retired pavilion or the artists’ last-minute tra- in 2009 by Narawan Pathomvat, French antiques dealer whose vails. Only a small number traveled to who, though not a major collector walled compound boasts its own see the show, and the press carried no or patron, hosts guest lectures, film gallery. The youthful entrepreneur post-event commentary. Indeed, while screenings and related events in her Disaphol Chansiri just completed Poshyananda, a de facto cultural official, family’s renovated shophouse, a for- installing his collection of contem- ponders how Bangkok might someday mer photography studio now lined porary Thai and Western artists host a regional biennial, Thai contem- with art books. (Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Navin porary art finds itself increasingly the The performance art scene in Rawanchaikul, Manit Sriwanichpoom, stuff of export and cultural diplomacy. Bangkok is well represented annually Ross Bleckner, Cindy Sherman, Even as the global economy continues by Asiatopia, an international festival Francesco Clemente and others) in a to stagger and the Thai art scene suf- directed by artist Chumpon Apisuk private exhibition space in the apart- fers financially, Shaowanasai remains (b. 1946). Last November, in its 11th ment adjacent to his living quarters in optimistic. Bantering with me in a season, the event brought work by a luxury condominium. And Chongrux Bangkok café only months ago, he sud- 15 artists (10 from Southeast Asia, 5 Chanthaworrasut, a Thai stockbroker, is denly leaned forward as though to pass from elsewhere; down from an aver- about to install a major on a secret: “Don’t worry, age total of 35) to audiences in both collection of works by krup! [the Thai term is an Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Varsha Nair Montien Boonma and GREGORY GALLIGAN, emphatic affirmation that (b. 1957), among the most prominent Chatchai Puipia in his an independent writer serves as a verbal excla- and curator, is currently a of Bangkok’s performance artists, co- own custom-built facil- Fulbright senior research mation point]. Thai artists edits Ctrl+P, a Web-based chronicle ity. For the moment, fellow in Thailand. really get creative when we of the global art scene. only the holdings of run out of cash.”

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