• OPINION

  The art of activism

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 20/02/2017

  » The Thai arts scene has become more politically engaging in the past couple of years. The 2014 coup, of course, has been the most significant transition point in this respect. Before, it was very much about making sense of the colour-coded divide, trying to get into the mentality behind such ideological conflict. In the post-coup era, however, it can be said that the ideas and interests have become somewhat more unified. Artists have become increasingly aware of and responded more to the authoritarian power and the climate of fear and rights restriction.

• OPINION

  Importance of moving on amid our grief

  News, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 28/10/2016

  » It has been two weeks now since the passing of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. For many of us, everything is still surreal wherein time is no factor. Since that fateful afternoon, the whole nation has turned black. "You'll no longer see what you have seen, but what you haven't seen before," someone wrote on his Facebook post. This is precisely the case.

• OPINION

  Abstraction remains our faulty coping mechanism

  Oped, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 30/09/2016

  » A theatrical performance, Fundamental, which lends its physical movements and body language to reconstruct Thailand's hushed-up history of the bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy students on Oct 6, 1976 has attracted the regime's attention.

• OPINION

  The surreal world we live in

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 18/12/2015

  » As the festive time draws near, with Christmas and the New Year, it's not only a time for celebrating and looking ahead, but looking at where we have been and where we are right now. But while the future is all imagination -- all your New Year's resolutions are possibly delusional and bogus -- what's real and inarguable is the past and the now, as we breathe and try to get through the day. Let's not get personal about this as there are plenty of other occasions to talk about your plans to do yoga more regularly, cut down on cigarettes or be nicer to other people.  

• OPINION

  A play with democracy

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 29/10/2015

  » A theatre workshop by Indonesian performance collective Teater Garasi took place for five days in Hong Kong last week as part of West Kowloon Cultural District's International Workshop Festival of Theatre. As a participant, the experience for me was both an inspiration and the source of a lingering sense of embarrassment.

• OPINION

  The joke that isn't funny anymore

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 08/07/2015

  » For quite a while I had managed to completely wipe Gen Prayut out of my mind. By turning off the familiar tune Return Happiness To Thailand as soon as it comes on, by ignoring the latest absurdities shared on Facebook and by not engaging in a conversation criticising our dear leader and the NCPO, it was a state of blissful apathy. Without news consumption, anger was starved and eventually died. As the state of calm ignorance shifted in, life was OK again.

• OPINION

  Art for our sake

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 27/03/2015

  » The thing that has been bugging me for the past few months is that every time I write about art, I just can't seem to escape Speedy Grandma, a small gallery in Charoen Krung.

• OPINION

  Sooner or later, it's game over

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 20/02/2015

  » Last week I was invited to join a panel on the topic "Why Criticism?", at Speedy Grandma, a small gallery in Charoen Krung. Along with a university literature lecturer and a film critic, I was invited as an arts and theatre critic. Before agreeing to participate, I insisted to the organisers that I'm not a critic, and it's unlikely that I will consider myself one anytime soon.

• OPINION

  In the name of the father?

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 05/12/2014

  » Today is Father's Day, so it's natural that I talk about my dad. But there's really nothing to say about him other than he just made me a pot pie with extra quail eggs this morning, and is now, as you are reading this, probably swimming to Bee Gees tunes on a Sony waterproof MP3 player he just bought.

• OPINION

  Hong Kong protest provokes Thai navel-gazing

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 01/10/2014

  » As I write this, the latest Facebook status of Sombat Boonngamanong, leader of Thai pro-democracy group Red Sunday, reads: "Hong Kongers are not happy".

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