By Elaine Chiew (1,600 words, eight-minute read) Art historian Patrick Flores first addressed the phenomenon of the artist-curator in his seminal essay Turns in Tropics [1] as someone who holds a certain power and who has become a key figure in shaping the art history of contemporary Southeast Asian art. Manit Sriwanichpoom’s exhibition Rediscovering Forgotten […]
‘Some people asked me why I didn’t paint Lord Rama [Phra Ram from the Ramakien epic] green,” said 88-year-old Aree Soothipunt in his husky voice, pointing to his abstract painting from the late 70s of a blue-skinned Rama. “The literature never specified that he was green. Anyone who said he’s supposed to be green can walk
Art is for everyone: Aree Soothipunt (via Bangkok Post) Read More »
A growing number of Thai street artists are turning political and getting their anti-corruption messages across with spray paint. Most keep their identity secret for fear of reprisals from the authorities. South China Morning Post speaks with three artists. There are many ways to fight the establishment, and Headache Stencil does so with graffiti. The
By Dan Koh (1,715 words, 15-minute read) At this year’s Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), the two films from Southeast Asia are documentaries, or hybrid-documentaries—just like last year’s three, curiously. Despite the glaring gaps that remain in the funding, distribution, marketing, and audience reception of our internationally overlooked non-fiction, plus their increased local censorship
Mayfly Docus: “Die Tomorrow” and “14 Apples” at SIFA’s “Singular Screens” Read More »
CHIANG MAI, Thailand – Works by 18 established and emerging artists from Southeast Asia offering their personal experiences of global migration, notions of identity and ongoing humanitarian crises in Myanmar are on currently on display in a group exhibition in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. The contemporary art exhibition “Diaspora: Exit, Exile, Exodus of Southeast Asia”
By Chloe Chotrani (1,040 words, five-minute read) The one who loves you hits you. The one who hits you loves you. The one who loves you hurts you. This is a piece about relationships, unfortunately. (We can’t get away from them.) One woman, one chair, one microphone. And a chair opposite her, for you. In
“Talk to me and I slap you”: confronting intimacy and violence Read More »
Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab (SEAFIC) has finalised the selection for its second edition, focusing on first-time filmmakers from Laos, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Established producers such as Fran Borgia (A Yellow Bird) and Anthony Chen (Pop Aye) are attached to some of the projects, which cover topics including family strife, sociopolitical bureaucracy, cross-cultural humour
“After nearly 10 years of documenting the vanishing stand-alone movie theaters in Southeast Asia, I’d like to invite the public into my world, to experience exactly what it is that I experience when doing this work.” Philip Jablon is a cultural researcher and photographer based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He has been documenting the stand-alone movie
One Man, Stand Alone: On the trail of the old movie theaters (via Asiola) Read More »
There’s something inherently sneaky about Thailand’s annual music festival Wonderfruit. The fest, which is fast becoming one of the best in Southeast Asia, is about so much more than music. Sure, those festival memories may have started in the Quarry, but the daylight side of the fest is so packed with informative discussions about sustainability, sexuality,
We can tell a few things about a theatre scene from the categories in its awards shows. In the International Association of Theatre Critics-Thailand (IACT-T) annual nominations list, there is one particular category for ‘movement-based performance’. This indicates that either there is a sheer variety of movement-based performances in Bangkok, or that its theatre critics
Rantau Reviews: “Something Missing” & “Plan B” in Bangkok Read More »
In the middle of the black box studio of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre there is a white rectangle placed on the floor. Above it, a rectangular box is mounted, casting fluorescent light diffused through a white screen. At the periphery of the studio, there are rows of slender pillars attached with fluorescent tubes.
Rantau Reviews: “Co/exist” & “Private Conversation” in Bangkok Read More »
The Bangkok Theatre Festival takes place at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, a handsome 9-storey rotunda building right beside the Siam Square shopping district. Instantly recognisable by its white, curved exterior, it houses a library, malls and galleries (the upper floors consist of a spiral ramp a la the Guggenheim Museum). In terms of
Rantau Reviews: 3 Plays at the Bangkok Theatre Festival Read More »
Tokyo Notes, a 1994 play by Oriza Hirata, was inspired by the 1953 film Tokyo Story by Yasujiro Ozu. The shift from ‘story’ to ‘notes’ forms what could be described as the play’s conceptual frame. While Ozu’s film tracked the story of an elderly couple visiting their children in Tokyo, Hirata’s play, fragmented and elliptical,
Rantau Reviews: “Bangkok Notes” Read More »
Pichet Klunchun was invited to create an outdoor performance at Minami Ikebukuro Park, a popular hang-out place for families and young people in Tokyo, by the Festival Tokyo 2017. It was an ‘odd’ commission given that Pichet Klunchun is known internationally, as a choreographer and dancer, for his deconstruction of classical Thai dance, the khon,
Tikam-Tikam Japan: Site-Specific Monkeys by Pichet Klunchun Read More »
“Bangkok Art and Culture Centre’s (BACC) fourth floor studio, the main venue for its ongoing sixth annual Performative Art Festival (PAF#6), is once again opening doors and lending its support not only to professional dance and theatre groups but also less seasoned performers. Last month, a mere five days after Anatta Theatre Group’s “Love Astray”
Unravelling social and political threads [Thailand] Read More »
“On June 15, Thai soldiers forced their way into two Bangkok galleries that were hosting exhibitions by two young Thai contemporary artists whose works reflect on their homeland’s political landscape. The military took down three collages by photographer Harit Srikhao that were part of the “Whitewash” exhibition at Gallery Ver. Next door in Cartel Artspace,
Thai Soldiers Censor Art Exhibition in Bangkok [Thailand] Read More »
“Bangkok Theatre Festival Asia Focus 2017, one of four major events being organised in the field of digital, creative, culture and high-value services as part of the government’s plan to make Thailand into the international and mega-event hub in Asia, will be held at Thonglor Art Space from May 26 to June 4. One of
Love, life and theatre [Thailand] Read More »
“Around an hour’s drive west of Bangkok, Ban Pong district in Ratchaburi has been turned into a vibrant art gallery, where visitors can explore the town and take selfies with striking works by more than 40 contemporary artists. Under the Ban Pong City Contemporary Art Development Project by AT Exchange (Art Terminal Exchange), this two-and-a-half
Home is where the art is, at Ban Pong district in Ratchaburi [Thailand] Read More »
“The first Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB) will be held next year, from November 2018 to February 2019 in Thailand’s capital. The announcement regarding BAB’s first edition was made in Venice on May 13 at the Westin Europa & Regina Hotel, San Marco, by the Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation, which was co-founded by food and beverage mogul
First Bangkok Art Biennale to Launch In 2018 [Thailand] Read More »
“Twenty-five years ago I joined a team from the Japan Foundation on a tour of Isan to meet and talk to molam artists, as part of a project on Lao music in the region. We met up with the then-president of the Molam Association, National Artist Kane Dalao, and his two female molam partners, Boonpeng
Mesmerising molam [Thailand, Laos] Read More »
“The violence meted out against people for their religious, political, and ethnic affiliations, often signaled by clothing and the symbols they wear, provides a lens through which to see abuses of power. All over the world, clothing and symbols can take on protective, threatening, or dangerous meanings. As happens in the West, discrimination against Muslims also occurs in Thailand and
By Philip Jablon (650 words, 7-minute read) Over the past 20 or so years, Thailand’s movie exhibition industry – that is, the collection of businesses and activities involved in the commercial showing of films – has experienced sweeping change on multiple levels. The adoption of new technologies working in tandem with changes in movie consumption
Thailand’s Last Movie Billboard Painters Read More »
By Yue Jie (870 words, 7-minute read) Spoiler alert! If you’ve not watched the movie yet, go see it before reading on. Few films deal with animals as a central character, and even fewer have an elephant as its protagonist. In Pop Aye, the feature debut of Singaporean film director Kirsten Tan, an elephant called
Review of “POP AYE”: A Soul Journey Read More »
“Chiang Mai archivist and musician Victoria Vorreiter published a book on tribal music, Songs Of Memory: Traditional Music Of The Golden Triangle, in 2009. Since then she has been busy travelling, researching and recording music from the tribal peoples of the mountains, and for the past six years her focus has been on Hmong music,
Sounds of the Hmong [Thailand] Read More »
“The Japan Foundation Asia Center presents “Mode Of Liaisons” exhibition featuring paintings, sculptures, films/videos, installations and performances by nearly 20 artists at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre until July 2. Curated by Pichaya Suphavanij, the exhibition is part of “Condition Report”, a collaborative art project with curators from Japan and Southeast Asian countries with the
Calling All Curators: “Mode of Liaison” at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre [Thailand] Read More »
“The Thai Ferrari, made from woven rattan by Chiang Rai locals, will park at the Venice Biennale this year. “It can’t run, obviously,” said Anon Pairot of his rattan sports car. “The curator once remarked that somehow it was like Thailand. We build things, but we don’t really go anywhere.” The 57th Venice Biennale begins
Baby you can’t drive my car [Thailand] Read More »
“What do four contemporary artists from three other Southeast Asian countries have that could resonate in a country like Thailand? Turns out, a whole lot. From aesthetics, to spiritual beliefs, to societal struggles, Jim Thompson Art Center’s latest group exhibition, “People, Money, Ghosts (Movement As Metaphor)”, depicts the continual change that the region is going through,
A region in flux: “People, Money, Ghosts (Movement As Metaphor)” [Thailand] Read More »
“Thailand and its neighbours join up for the 2017 edition of the Asean Puppet Festival The magic of marionettes will light up Bangkok later this week as more than 400 puppeteers from eight Asean countries put on shows guaranteed to keep spectators spellbound. Brought to Thailand at the initiative of the Culture Ministry, the Asean
Marionette marvels: ASEAN Puppet Festival 2017 [Thailand, SEA] Read More »
“#BKKY is a coming-of-age love story following Jojo, who embodies an amalgamation of interviews the director conducted with 100 Thai teenagers. #BKKY’s opening scene is a brilliant five-minute-long single-shot piece of cinematography, taken from underneath a desk. We see only the legs of two young high school girls and hear them talk flirtatiously with one another.
In many of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films, the membrane that separates dream from reality is a porous one. In Syndromes And A Century, snatches of dialogue are repeated, with slight variations, as if to recreate the sensation of déjà vu. In Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a long lost son returns
Warming Up to Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s ‘Fever Room’ Read More »
