Showing 1 - 10 of 51
The case of the closing(?) Art Center
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 11/01/2017
» To close down or not to close down? One would have thought that that is not the question for Chulalongkorn University's The Art Center, after having been one of Thailand's most prominent art institutions for 20 years -- after playing host to some of Thailand's best-established artists as well as international names such as Joan Miró, Marina Abramovic, Zhang Peili and more.
Remaking the scene
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 21/12/2016
» It has been a busy year for the Thai art scene, with well-known artists taking turns treating Bangkok viewers to their latest works, new galleries welcomed and old ones closing down, and politics remaining deeply embedded in artistic expression.
Never forget
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 05/10/2016
» In a stage performance that just finished its run on Sunday, performers re-enacted scenes in which victims were hunted, beaten and strangled to death. In an art exhibition opening tomorrow, we'll see in paintings traces of atrocious scenes in the foreground while the surface is heavily smudged with paint, to the point of abstraction.
The politics of love
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 08/09/2016
» Thanapol Virulhakul, critically-acclaimed stage director and choreographer, has a way of giving space a certain significance. His take is usually minimalistic, the stage bare and his actors assigned with limited set of movements, and it is the relentless repetition of those elements that would slowly make up the storyline and become part of the blow in the end.
Art to float your boat
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 17/08/2016
» A watermelon is in the centre of the screen, and we watch it being gradually squeezed as two pairs of hands continuously put rubber bands around it. On another screen, a woman is in the middle of nowhere and suddenly takes out a toaster before hurling it away with all her strength like a hammer throw.
Protest, die, repeat?
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 18/05/2016
» Sunday marks the second anniversary of the 2014 military takeover, the second coup d'etat in Thailand in a decade and the 12th successful one since absolute monarchy was overthrown in 1932. And three months from now, in August, the highly controversial charter referendum will take place.
Out of the sunlight
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 28/04/2016
» Every use of the word "sunlight" in Duncan Macmillan's play Every Brilliant Thing, was replaced with "sunset" by director Pawit Mahasarinand in his Thai adaptation, which has just finished its run at Chulalongkorn University's Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts last week.
Trafficking in art
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 16/03/2016
» The notion that an artist can exist alone and thrive independently, according to artist and curator Henry Tan of the Tentacles contemporary art space, is long over. The same applies to art spaces in Bangkok. This explains why there's a profusion of co-operative projects between art galleries practically all year round.
Saatchi's Thai show coming to Bangkok
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 17/02/2016
» With the exhibition "Thailand Eye Presented By Prudential" at Saatchi Gallery in London now over, the book Thailand Eye: Contemporary Thailand Art, a comprehensive overview of the scene, was recently launched in anticipation of the exhibition's move to Bangkok Art and Culture Centre in March. Seventy-three artists are highlighted in this book and it serves as a preface to the show, with one section featuring the 23 artists in the exhibition.
A beautiful yet random mess
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 17/02/2016
» Perhaps "Heavy Metal", a new show at Tars Gallery, was not that well thought out. That was just an initial response, though. The whitewashed walls and good lighting of this newly opened space make a good start for any show; the clean minimal set-up of its debut show "Untitled 1" last year was proof of that. But now, it's a lot more complex -- "messy" may be the preferred term -- primarily with a scatter of potted plants, bright pastel-painted canvases and images of Roman sculptures mounted on plasterboard.