BANGKOK POST: DIALOGIC art exhibition, Are we not all the same?Writer: Brian Curtin

BANGKOK POST

ARTREVIEW

Are we not all the same?

A new exhibition explores our common humanity in dialogue with the oeuvre of Phraya Anuman Rajadhon

Published: 3/08/2011 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: Life

Call me a hypocrite! Scold me for being two-faced! Lecture me for saying one thing and meaning another! Accuse me of not being able to accept the truth! Blame me for being deceptive!

So begins Prabda Yoon’s essay for Dialogic, an exhibition by a variety of artists in dialogue with the works of Phraya Anuman Rajadhon, or Sathirakoses, whom the PR describes as a “commoner, philosopher, historian, linguist, literary critic, theology scholar, translator, and a contrarian that refused to put an end to his curiosity”. He was born in Thailand in 1888 and died here in 1969.

He was a self-taught historian and critic at a time when Siam was shifting into the modern period. Sathirakoses was the pseudonym he used for his fiction writing and in 1988, when Unesco marked the centenary of his birth, outspoken intellectual Sulak Sivaraksa, another contributor to Dialogic, described him as a national hero. Sulak’s essay here begins, “The aim of art is to understand emotional expression.”

(Incidentally, I edited the English translation of the Dialogic catalogue, which involvement, we might assume, afforded me an intimate engagement with the ideas presented, but let’s see.)

Dialogic is divided into eight sections concerned with the fundamentals of living: Birth, Ageing, Sickness, Death, Eating, Shitting, Humping and Sleeping. Each of these is linked to categories of visual arts, literature, design, performance, multimedia, music, film and architecture. The exhibition is concerned with the idea of looking at our sense of humanity in terms of its essential cycles and, by so doing, understanding our commonalities while giving us a sense of distance from personal notions of self.

‘Lom Pengkaew via Pinyo Trisuriyatamma 2011’

As my opening quote from Prabda hinted, moral norms and ideologies can be a terrible means of insisting on differences between us.

Phraya Anuman Rajadhon was a voracious consumer and producer of ideas. Anuk Pitukthanin’s essay on the master highlights his research into the genesis and shared characteristics of different ethnic groups in Thailand. Therefore, alongside the idea of dialogue for this exhibition, notions of lineage and the discursive are also key considerations.

An outstanding feature of Dialogic is that it doesn’t look like an art exhibition or, at least, not the type we are used to seeing in Bangkok. Pinyo Trisuriyatamma evokes the spirit of the writer Lom Pengkaew with a traditional Thai house; Mahasmut Bunyaraksh and Sedhawat Aoudha erected a simplified bar-room structure to accommodate a melancholic sound installation; Pracha Suveeranont’s sarcastic take on traditional Thai murals looks like graphics for a conference; and Surasi Kusolwong’s field of silken, multi-coloured threads encourages visitors to search for gold necklaces hidden within. These necklaces carry a ghost motif designed by the artist.

‘Millu Young and Pattarasuda Anuman Rajadhon performing arts 2011’.

A more acute observation is that no alternative and encompassing description of Dialogic comes to mind. This, of course, is a strength because it keeps seeking engagement and explanation.

An artful but extremely powerful work is KISS (2011), an installation and video projection by film-maker Thunksa Pansittivorakul. Thunksa links images of allegorical and erotic beauty with grotesque pictures of human suffering, some from the 2010 street protests in Bangkok.

KISS is partly inspired by Sathirakoses’ writing on the national significance of different practices of kissing, and Thunksa’s film of two naked Thai men French-kissing in a rural idyll offers a wry commentary on intercultural understanding. That is, one could speculate quite wildly about the differences between cultural attitudes in Thailand and France to nudity, homosexuality and public displays of affection. But, more profoundly, when linked to the dreadful images he has hung nearby, one gains a great sense of the limits and violence that can disrupt questions of our common humanity. While this may sound a subversive note in the context of Dialogic’s theme, that is not really the point; rather, and like Prabda’s writing here, we are prompted to be clear-sighted about reasons why we might not identify with another human being.

‘Thunska Pansittivorakul Kiss 2011’ shots.

‘Surasi Kusolwong 2011’.

Dialogic is curated by Kittiphol Saragganonda and continues at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) until September 25.Visit http://www.bacc.or.th and http://www.dialogicexhibition.com

Writer: Brian Curtin

Position: An Irish-born artist and curator based in Bangkok.

(Source: bangkokpost.com)