Showing 21 - 30 of 35
Loud paintings
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 13/01/2016
» Echoing the title of Paphonsak La-or's solo exhibition "Silent No More", his opening reception at Lyla Gallery in Chiang Mai on Boxing Day last year was buzzing with locals and those who had made the trip from Bangkok. Milling around, everyone in the exhibition room couldn't possibly have avoided the huge 7m-long centrepiece that comes with a shade of blue paint that is neither gloomy nor reassuring in the background. While there's a sentence in the middle, "This image is no longer available", the bottom text reads, "Love which was woven in our society leads to a great tragedy and sorrow".
The Island Funeral scoops prestigious film award
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 06/11/2015
» Several years in the making, director Pimpaka Towira's feature film The Island Funeral (Maha Samut Lae Susan) won the Asian Future Film Award at the 28th Tokyo International Film Festival last weekend. The award, which was established two years ago, is given to the best work by first- and second-time directors.
Picture of a genius
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 04/11/2015
» 'He was nothing else but just a painter," said Pablo Picasso's grandson Olivier Widmaier Picasso. It was only when Picasso died, in 1973, that he started to realise how important his grandfather was, not just to the art scene, but to the world.
The shape-shifting form of protests
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 06/10/2015
» The streets remained empty and all was quiet when thousands of people gathered last Wednesday night to protest against the government's Single Gateway proposal. Protesters weren't, however, down at major landmarks like Asoke or Ratchaprasong intersections, but simply in front of their computer screens. By merely punching the refresh button, these protesters let their resentment known to the authorities by crashing at least six government sites, including the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology.
Out of the darkroom
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 23/09/2015
» One doesn't know where to begin, and with what sort of mood, with "Rediscovering Forgotten Thai Masters Of Photography".
The biggest opera in history
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 21/05/2015
» Thai-American author and composer Somtow Sucharitkul's opera The Silent Prince (Temiya Jataka) premiered in Houston five years ago to rave reviews. Last year, his restructured Mahajanaka Symphony, built on the success of his ballet-opera Suriyothai, was met with equal success. So with two down and another eight tales from the epic cycle of the Dasjati Jatakas (Ten Lives Of The Buddha) to go, Somtow's ballet-opera Bhuridat (The Dragon Lord), opening tomorrow at Thailand Cultural Centre, marks the third and the beginning of a five-year project to create and stage all episodes.
Butterflies and solitude
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 20/05/2015
» The opening of 100 Tonson Gallery's "Chatchai Puipia: Sites Of Solitude. Still-Life, Self-Portraiture, And The Living Archive" last month seemed to have been an unmissable event for every prominent figure in the Bangkok art scene, except for Chatchai himself. It's not that there was something urgent he had to attend to; he had no intention of going, not when the show was being set up, nor when it was running.
Becoming blissfully aware
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 08/05/2015
» Jenjira Pongpas has no clue what Blissfully Yours, the 2002 Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard prize-winning film by director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, is all about. Not while first reading the script, not while acting it in, not after the film won the prestigious award that heralded Thai art house cinema, and not even today.
A monthly column rounding up the best of the capital's art scene
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 25/03/2015
» It's a real shame that works by Dutch artist Daan Botlek in "Inhabited Hypercube" were only displayed for a week at Cho Why gallery in Chinatown. Yet, that was a happy sign that curator Myrtille Tibayrenc's Toot Yung Gallery, who organised the exhibition as their first nomad project after her space closed down in Ekamai last year, is very much alive and doing rather well.
The voice of the northeast
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 17/03/2015
» By the haystack next to a rice field, Yothin Kijbai sung out in high-pitched, rhyming Isan verses that he apparently knew by heart. Dressed in a light blue costume adorned with glittering sequins, the 68-old-year is not a madman but a well-known "comedy molam".