Bangkok Biennale 2020 Feature
I went to the Bangkok Arts Cultural Centre to explore the works there featuring artists around the world. This is the best far as I have seen and explore.
Rubbish, Dipping Sauce, Grass Pennie.
Maisie Cousin, artist live and work in London, UK
Biography: https://www.bkkartbiennale.com/artist/Maisie-Cousins
The artist experimented with the saturation of colors in her works. Close up of the object that interested her. For me, this is like “ Nature can be beautiful and can be ugly at the time”. There are 5 pieces of the series and about 2 meters in height. I coulda vague sense of beauty and violence of nature in the pictures. Can be about death to setting and take the image of these picture on his process of work. Colorful nature yet is very different from my view that normally natural tone or earth tone perception of color in nature.
Yoko Ono, Birth 1933, in Tokyo, Japan
Lives and works in New York, USA
Biography: https://www.bkkartbiennale.com/artist/yoko-ono
Yoko Ono was a conceptual artist and performance artist since the 1960s. The Video projected with the quiet box room. 2 screens across the room the first is the younger of Ono in 1964s and the second is older of Ono which the colored film. The video challenge the audience to judge the line of ethics in sexuality human rights as I perceived. It’s very impactful that let the audience come up on the stage and cut a piece of her dress while Ono sitting still. The audience interacts with her differently whether by sex, race, color, and so on. I noticed the moment the man kiss her on the cheek and cut a big piece of the cloth revealing her bra inside. It was so brave for her to stay unshaken until her performance I strongly admire her at that.
Michael Shaowanasol, Birth 1964, Pennsylvanian, USA
Biography: https://www.bkkartbiennale.com/artist/Michael-Shaowanasai
The Promenade des Homos, 2020
Photographed with Aroon Permpoonsopon and printed for exhibition size.
The photographs mostly about the sexuality and taste of people. The male and female including another gender. It can be morally wrong in the buddha religion forward being gay in society as I saw from the work. The production simply put black and white background but can be meaningful also the same. Personally, I’m not interested in this work so much compare to others in the exhibition.
Tawan Wattuya birth1973, Bangkok, Thailand
Lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand
Biography: https://www.bkkartbiennale.com/artist/tawan-wattuya
Money (2020)
Wattuya recreates banknotes from all over the world by painting enlarged versions of them in watercolor, preserving the characters of each currency. There are huge metaphors on the banknote object as the transformation of the world and give such value to it. It can metaphors as the financial crisis happens around the world. It’s seemingly Wattutya have currency exchange rates to compare whichever country is higher or lower in terms of the economics of the country for example.
Minah Son .B.1973, Busan, Korea
Lives and works in Seoul, Republic of Korea
Biography: https://www.bkkartbiennale.com/artist/minah-son
Chapter of Revelation, English Text, German Text, (2008–2020)
Minah Son invented the letter called by using her name “Minah Son Letter”. Minah tried to explore value based on “Biblical Book”. I think the work is very confusing and understandable for most people. But as the value of the invented text with barcode-like is can be translated into many things such as technology, globalization in the Bible, hiding behind the unreadable text. If you move further from the work you can see the value that forms into English letters vaguely.
Charit Pusiri b. 1986, Bangkok, Thailand
Lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand
Biography: https://www.bkkartbiennale.com/artist/charit-pusiri
Peek!, (2020)
Pusiri explained that “When we think of the word ‘peeking’, we usually think of looking through a keyhole which suggests a sense of wanting to know other people’s secrets (both friends and strangers).” that giving implication of the audience is looking through the keyhole is their fault. Peek! is represented by Thai culture and beliefs and targeted the person in the culture in Thailand. Such as the picture of the director’s room in the three last pictures. Thai education still involves dirty money and the morally wrong of the teacher and parents of the student together. Education is one part of the business in the world we pay for the degree but in the rotten system, there is more I cannot see or know, raping kid students in Thailand for example.
I-na Phuyuthanon b.1984, Yala, Thailand
Lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand
Biography: https://www.bkkartbiennale.com/artist/i-na-phuyuthanon
HARMONIMILITARY, (2020)
I-na Phuyuthanon received a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, Faculty of Architecture from the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang in 2006, and a Master’s degree in Computer Arts, Faculty of Arts and Design, Rangsit University in 2009. In 2014, she completed her Doctor’s degree in Visual Arts, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University.
The video focuses on the issue in southern Thailand, as we knew “ the three provinces Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala”. As I understand at first The girl needs to be used to violence and warzone as a sounding of the video. I feel uncomfortable as I in the exhibition of I-na work. The surrounding sound with helicopter, gunfire, and bombs is very disturbing as the dream-like of the shot film represents the beauty of the girl wandering in villages and nature but very contrast to the sounding design itself. The child’s voice also is heard in some parts during the war sound which very intense to the audience including me.
Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina est. 2010, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Irwan and Tita is a self-taught artist in and graduated from graphic design at Jakarta Institute of Arts. Their work is focused on issues regarding urban public space. At first, is quite easy to understand what is the artist is trying to communicate, but as deeper the screen runs we seeing more insight into issues with island people who have been suffering from the waste from the city that dumps into the sea. The water level raised affects groups of Morken, Morgan, and Urak Lavoy, whose ancestors have lived on this island a long time ago.
It’s very impactful using a close-up shot of the film as they pick up trash and make the boat. As a result of, raising awareness to the people at the end of the film Tita one of the artist abandons lost in the sea with the pollution-trash boat is huge impactful emotion received from their work.
Naiza Khan b. 1968, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
Lives and works in London, UK and Karachi, Pakistan
Biography: https://www.bkkartbiennale.com/artist/naiza-khan
Naize Khan arranged four-screen the film that was shot on Manora, a former British colonial naval base, by the bustling city of Karachi. The island seemed to have a variety of cultures and can be the meaning of other stories in the name of the work. There are two stories on four screens separated by two by two of the stories. It would be categorized into the documentary stories of the island with a lot of changes with the marketing by the sea and this island. People seem to worry about this change and the last scene of both stories makes me really sad in the hope that their products could sell and make a living by decorated lighting model of boat selling in a handcart when the dusky days without any music but the only wind blowing until the end.
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang b. 1962, Bangkok, Thailand
Lives and works in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand
Biography: https://www.bkkartbiennale.com/artist/pen-ek-ratanaruang
Pen-Ek was known for its art movies for the Thailand community. I watched some of his movies since a child and not understand anything at all called “Citizen Dog.” It’s talking about loneliness, love in Bangkok in a very very interesting way the scene conducted with complex elements that can be a metaphor in many ways.
Two Little Soldiers, is inspired by Guy de Maupassant’s Deux Amis (Two Friends) (1882). Two old friends who used to go fishing before the Franco-Prussian War, reminisce over glasses of absinthe at the time of the Siege of Paris in 1871.
There are three main characters, Anon, Decha, Sao. Two soldiers going inside the wood to finding relaxing, swimming, smoking, and romantic when talking to the villager girl, Sao. It feels very mystery there is no reason why two soldiers going there and the meeting of the girl is very random. But as sometimes just enjoy the present and focus on the movie is be the best to not this question.
I really love this work for most of the entire exhibition. It’s not a disturbing and confusing time, after we dispatched I watched this 4 times for an hour to catch every detail of this movie. Even simplicity setting the story can be meaningful. Sound and visual are completely separated. The is only play on guitar playing and the radio announces the news as the protagonist turn on the radio until the end. The conversation is talking with our voice but insert text images on the next second. Full with the meaning of words between pop-up conversation and the bizarre events of meeting two soldiers in the countryside and the villager not knowing anything outside her village, The media or the radio can be fake if you think it carefully who know it is the truth or not if the two soldiers don’t tell the fact of the military in radio and the reality.
