• LIFE

  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.

• LIFE

  Examining identity

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 16/11/2016

  » A lot is going on in "Continuum: Acculturating", the latest exhibition at The Art Center at Chulalongkorn University. Jakkai Siributr, Jedsada Tangtrakulwong and Piyatat Hemmatat show different interests and practices, and with "acculturation" as the key idea, the result is three separate and complicated realms. In them, narratives and cultural identities -- those of the artists' origins and from the new environments they are looking at -- are constantly shifting and integrating.

• LIFE

  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.

• THAILAND

  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.

• LIFE

  Roving eye

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 13/04/2016

  » After a trip to Saatchi Gallery, a major exhibition by 23 artists called "Thailand Eye" has finally made it home to Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, where it will continue through August. When the exhibition first opened late last year in London, it created a buzz, with these 23 artists being selected from a longlist of as many as 200. The exhibition is the final instalment of a series of three cultural events marking the 60th birthday of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the first two being a khon performance at the Royal Albert Hall and the Thai Film Festival at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in June last year.

• LIFE

  Art as a political act

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 18/03/2016

  » It was with a feeling of nausea and disgust that Chiang Mai-based artist Mit Jai Inn spent one month working on his new series of abstract paintings, now on display and part of the exhibition "Wett" at Gallery Ver at N22 in Bangkok. Mit's series is entitled "Junta Monochrome" -- obviously not for the works themselves -- for the art space has exploded with every colour imaginable; rather the title conveys the artist's contempt for the reality outside: a junta-ruled country where things are either black or white, where if you're not a khon dee (good person), the artist says, you are inevitably the bad guy.

• OPINION

  Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

  News, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 25/02/2016

  » I wonder if People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) protesters must, in one way or another, take responsibility for where we are now as a country, nearly two years under the military regime. This is if you care to look at the situation, out of curiosity and an attempt at straightforward reasoning, rather than vengefulness.

• 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.  

• LIFE

  Through the lens

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 29/07/2015

  » The photography scene in Bangkok used to be about specialised venues such as Kathmandu Photo Gallery, Serindia Gallery or RMA Institute. Or maybe a handful others if just pinning photographs on walls counts as an exhibition.

• LIFE

  Stage whispers

  Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 27/05/2015

  » The artistic career of Thanapol Virulhakul, director of the critically acclaimed contemporary dance performance Hipster The King, is a work-in-progress. It started out with a thesis project at Thammasat University's Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, in which he made Buddhist amulets out of chocolate, sold them on the street and filmed reactions of passers-by and amulet experts.

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