Of the 83 galleries presented from around the globe, seven galleries from Thailand, along with three galleries plus one collector in Singapore, presented 15 Thai artists at the three-day fair.

Under its geographical interaction, Art Stage Singapore 2018 remained committed in focusing its engagement on Southeast Asia and this year featured a special focus on the new and vibrant art scene flourishing in the region – Thailand.

“The Thai art market is growing fast,” said Lorenzo Rudolf, the fair director. “Moreover, the infrastructure in Thailand’s art scene is also growing with new private museums, more seriously managed art galleries opening around town, private companies investing in art and art adviser organisations.”

Prominent Thai conceptual artist Rirkrit Tiravanija’s new prints are highlighted at the fair. Photo/Phatarawadee Phataranawik

Represented at Singapore’s STPI-Creative Workshop & Gallery, prominent Thai conceptual artist Rirkrit Tiravanija showed his new prints – priced between S$8,700 (Bt209,000) and S$32,000 (Bt769,000) – at the fair.

Bangkok’s Numthong Gallery returned to the fair again with Kamin Lertchaiprasert’s remarkable installation, “The Timeless Present Moment” which draws attention to many Asian collectors. Tang Gallery Bangkok presented Sakarin Krue-On’s new installation, “A Talebearer’s Tale”.

Singapore’s Richard Koh Fine Art presented Natee Utarit’s new painting series, “Untitled Poems of Theodore Rousseau”.

Along with these superstars, five galleries introduced 10 emerging artists. For the first time, Nova Contemporary showed an interactive conceptual photography installation, “The Shads Would Shatter at Touch” by Tada Hengsapkul whose his work was sold at the fair. A newly opened gallery named I Project presented Pornprasert Yamazaki’s new installation, “Fountain”.

Presented by Whitespace Gallery Bangkok, Maitree Siriboon returned to the fair with his new installation, “The Money Tree Project 2018”.

Number I Gallery brought works by Kittisak Thapkoa, Tewaporn Maikonhkaw and Boonhlue Yangsouy. SAC Gallery Bangkok is showing works by Thidarat Chantachua, Verapong Sritrakulkitjakarn and Kma Sirisamphan.

Manit Sriwanichapoom’s 2007 installation “Pink Men vs Pink Buddha” is also highlighted at the fair as part of a grand selling exhibition of Asian contemporary works from the Tiroche DeLeon Collection.

Represented by Singapore’s Art Season, a stunning series of fibreglass sculptures of Buddha Statues with Lego heads by Komkrit Thepthien also drew the attention of many collectors.

Singapore’s Richard Koh Fine Art presents Natee Utarit’s new painting series, “Untitled Poems of Theodore Rousseau”.  Photo/Phatarawadee Phataranawik

Five young Thai winning UOB Art Awards were also presented at the fair.

Art Stage Singapore started in 2011 as a flagship art fair for Southeast Asia established by Swiss national Rudolf, who used to be director of Art Basel in the mid-1990s.

Aiming to make Singapore the Southeast Asian art hub, Rudolf and his team have brought more than 500 galleries to the Singapore fair since 2011, but the participating galleries decline yearly citing poor sales. Last year saw 131 galleries participate, while this year the attendance was trimmed down to 83 galleries. Behind Hong Kong, the Singapore art market is smaller and this year’s fair was the smallest.

“The art market in Singapore is weaker, as less collectors buy art. But we hope this year’s highlights, including the vibrant Thai art market, masterpieces by American artist Alexander Calder and a special exhibition by Colombia figurative artist and sculptor Fernado Botero will capitalise the market,” said Rudolf, who also runs Art Stage Jakarta.

“We still keep running Art Stage in Singapore and need to make the fair sustainable and turn Singapore into the art hub of Southeast Asia,” he hoped.

Art Stage is part of Singapore’s Art Week, held by the National Art Council with Thai-focused events. Rirkrit also opened his new show, featuring new installation “Untitled 2018 (the infinite dimensions of smallness)” on the rooftop of the National Gallery Singapore where Pinaree Sanpitak also exhibited her new installation. Meanwhile, Apichatpong Weerasethakul showed his critically acclaimed work, “Fever Room” at Victoria Theatre.

Surely, the fair and Festival benefit the Thai art market and art scene.

“Thai artists are exhibited and known in a greater sphere of the art context, but in an art fair context, I think it will widen the collecting base for Thai art and artists,” said Rirkrit.

“There is a great wealth of collectors in Southeast Asia, and the exposure of a Thai art programme certainly could be beneficial. On the other hand, the Ministry of Culture in Thailand, should take note of how Singapore and its government has been supporting and promoting art and culture, with first Singapore Art Museum (and its great collection of SEAsian artists), and the newly opened National Gallery, as well as Art Stage.

Singapore’s government also gave grants to Singaporean based galleries to apply and exhibit in art fairs around the globe. The Thailand ministry should consider such a support, as galleries are the infrastructure for the cultivation of artists and their art,” said Rirkrit, who is an adviser to the Bangkok Art Biennale opening in Bangkok in October.

Tang Gallery Bangkok presents Sakarin Krue-On’s new installation, “A Talebearer’s Tale”.  Photo/Phatarawadee Phataranawik

The “Portrait of Felix Auerbach”, created by Munch in 1906 was bought for an undisclosed amount from a private collection, Van Gogh Museum director Axel Rueger told journalists.

“It’s the only portrait by Munch in a Dutch collection,” a beaming Rueger said as the painting was being hung at the museum — exactly 74 years after Munch’s death.

It’s also the first time the picture goes on display at the popular museum, which drew a record 2.26 million visitors last year, making it one of the most-visited attractions in the country, Rueger said.

Munch was commissioned in 1906 to paint the likeness of the famous German physicist Auerbach while the scientist was working as a professor at the University of Jena in central Germany. He was paid 500 marks for the job.

It depicts a self-assured Auerbach, with a steady gaze and holding a cigar, on a vibrant red background and is considered to be one of the best portraits by Munch in the early 20th century, Van Gogh Museum curator Maite van Dijk said.

Munch, best known for his seminal painting “The Scream”, drew much of inspiration from Van Gogh, whose works he saw around 1890, although it was unlikely that the two ever met, the Van Gogh Museum added.

“Just like Van Gogh, he (Munch) strived towards modernising art and both developed a colourful and expressive way of the universal emotions found in human existence,” it said.

The Van Gogh Museum in 2015 hosted an exhibition called “Munch: Van Gogh” in which the parallels between the artists were highlighted.

Although the painting of Felix Auerbach is the only personal portrait by Munch on display in the Netherlands, it is one of two Munch canvasses in the country.

The other Munch is called “Two Girls under an Apple Tree in Bloom” and can be seen at Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

WHAT HAVE Sophia Loren, John Cleese and Woody Allen got in common?

They all began their careers in the oft-derided world of photo comics or photonovels.

The genre, infamous for stilted storylines and sugary romantic melodramas, is finally getting its day in the sun in a major museum retrospective in France.

The lingering kisses and frozen horrified looks that were the bread and butter of photo comic stories now seem irredeemably kitsch.

But in strait-laced post-war Europe they were lapped up by millions even after the dawn of television – sparking moral panic and condemnation by both the pope and communist leaders.

Well into the 1960s one in three French people were avid readers, according to the curators of the “Roman-Photo” exhibition at the Mucem museum in Marseilles, which claims to be the first definitive look at a genre “that has rarely attracted the attention of historians”.

Indeed many of the people who created photo comics were so scornful of them that they left very little behind for posterity.

Yet “photonovels were one of the biggest pop cultural successes of the 20th century,” says co-curator Frederique Deschamps, “modern fairy tales filled with cars, fridges, record players and other objects that symbolise modernity, romance and desire.”

From their birth in Italy in 1947, photo comics reflected changing moral values and fed the slow rise of feminism with stories about touchy and taboo subjects like “divorce, abortion and women’s rights at work”, says her co-curator Marie-Charlotte Calafat.

“They do not deserve their retrograde reputation at all,” she adds, “it’s the reverse actually.”

Instead they were real barometers of the “aspirations of society with storylines where women questioned their place,” Calafat insisted.

So much so that even the reforming Pope John XXIII denounced them in 1959, prompting one liberal Catholic weekly to call them “the opium of the female masses”.

A lobby group made up of French communists, Christian intellectuals and some feminists also famously branded them “infantile magazines that undermine morality and break up families”. Eventually though even the Church gave in and began using photonovels to recount the lives of the saints.

The genre soon spawned imitators in Britain and the US, where the satirical magazine Help! called on the budding comic and acting talents of Woody Allen, John Cleese and fellow Monty Python member Terry Gilliam.

Photo comics also featured in National Lampoon as “photo funnies”, with Americans borrowing the Italian word “fumetti” for the genre, meaning speech bubble (literally “little puff of smoke”).

But as the 1960s wore on and TV became increasingly dominant, sales began to wane, pushing publishers to ape Hollywood and up the sex and shock factors.

A large part of the Marseilles show is dedicated to Killing, a sadistic Italian photo comic character who stole from other criminals and took particular pleasure from torturing scantily-clad women.

The French version of the series, Satanik, was banned after 19 issues in 1967, but the brutal anti-hero – who wore a skeleton costume – spawned a bootleg Turkish version called Kilink that featured in several cult films, borrowing liberally from French and Italian pulp movies “Fantomas” and “Kriminal”.

But it was pornography that gave photo comics their longest and most lucrative afterlife in such best-selling top-shelf magazines as the Italian Fotosex.

The British tabloid The Sun still uses photo strips to illustrate its Dear Deidre problem page, which inevitably turns on sexual dilemmas or titillating situations.

And photo comics continue to be widely used for health education worldwide.

Putting the exhibition together, however, was not an easy task.

Curator Deschamps said she began her interest in the genre after finding a stack of the French magazine Nous Deux (Us Two) in a skip. As she dug deeper into the subject she discovered that the originals of most of the massively selling magazines had also been confined to the dustbin of history, leaving researchers with little to go on.

Without chancing upon thousands of negatives of original photos in the archives of the Mondadori publishing house in Milan, she said they would not have been able to stage the show.

The exhibition runs at Mucem, Marseille, until April 23.

The exhibition will take visitors to explore the different phenomena reflecting the dynamic growth and self-determination of the Isan people as they face up to global change. The exhibition also includes “Common Exercises: Isan Contemporary Report”, a collection of paintings, photographs, videos and installation arts by 12 groups of Isan artists and photographers.

Visitors can participate in the Exhibition Education Activity consisting of Curator and Artist Talks, workshops and board games, the Storytelling Activity for Kids that blends Isan culture with story-telling; and the Inspired Books Activity that presents talks on Isan literature.

The Music & Art segment introduces an interesting line-up that includes Tum Tern Mor Lam, VKL Khun Narin Pinprayook, Rasmee Wayrana aka Rasmee E-sarn Soul and DJ Maff Sai.

Find out more at http://www.Bacc.or.th.

MORE THAN 6,000 years of Japanese ways of life and religious beliefs are on view until February 18 at the National Museum Bangkok, in an exhibition that completes a long-planned cultural exchange between our countries.

Like its predecessors – the “Land of Buddha” exhibitions of Thai artefacts that drew 200,000 visitors to museums in Tokyo and Kyushu – “The History of Japanese Art: Life and Faith” commemorates 130 years of diplomatic relations between the nations.

That figure is echoed in the number of precious artefacts assembled for each exhibition. In the case of the current Japanese show, they date from prehistory to the Edo Period of the early 17th century.

The evolution of Buddhist art in Japan is illustrated with sacred and historical statues, all part of an exhibition marking 130 years of diplomatic relations with Thailand.

There are earthen pottery, sculptures, paintings and other forms of fine art reflecting the uniqueness of Japanese beliefs and traditions. Three items are classified as national treasures and another 25 as “important cultural properties”.

Museum director Phnombootra Chandrajoti says Japanese and Thai researchers worked closely to select the artefacts that best represented their countries’ histories and the cultural relationship between them.

“The collection we loaned to Japan last year was the largest of its kind. It included an elaborately carved door from Wat Suthat and invaluable gold objects from Wat Ratchaburana.”

The exhibition from Japan occupies the recently renovated Siwamokkhaphiman Hall, which boasts an open plan and beautiful high ceilings.

Phnombootra says Japanese and Thai experts spent 18 months installing humidity and temperature controls, suitable lighting and secure glass cabinets.

The government’s Fine Arts Department has devoted several years to returning the buildings within the museum compound to their former glory. It was formerly Wang Na Palace, erected in 1782, about the same time the Grand Palace was built.

Siwamokkhaphiman Hall, which served as the viceroys’ throne hall, is the first structure to be renovated. Work is underway on two more.

A prehistoric earthen Dogu figurine 

“As an historical building, the hall is subject to relatively high humidity,” says museum curator Wiparat Praditarchip. “Except for the glass cabinets set out in a ‘U’ shape around the hall, the rest of the cabinets are new and designed specially to hold priceless works. They’re fitted with controls to maintain the humidity at 55 to 60 per cent and the temperature at 25 degrees Celsius.”

Phnombootra says Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn viewed the exhibition in Tokyo last year.

“She pointed out to us how the Japanese pay so much attention to detail in displaying priceless antiquities. Every artefact was placed on a sheet of unbleached wood wrapped in unbleached paper, then on a base to prevent any chemical damage or discoloration. We’ve used the same technique, except that we’ve used unbleached fabric instead of paper.”

The exhibition covers five general topics.

“The Dawn of Japanese Art” has prehistoric artworks created long before Buddhism arrived from China and Korea.

The oldest piece is an earthenware vessel dating to the Jomon Period (14,000-300 BCE). Its elaborate decoration – flames are depicted – suggests it was used in religious ceremonies and, coming from an area of Niigata Prefecture known for heavy  snowfalls, signified human efforts to survive the winter.

A national treasure of Japan, this 11thcentury painting depicts the 16 arhats (perfected persons) of Buddhist lore.

“Every Japanese child is familiar with the Dogu figurine from history textbooks,” says Wiparat of an unglazed clay female statuette also from the Jomon. “It’s one of Japan’s important cultural properties.”

In “Buddhist Art”, bronze statues of Sakayamuni and Buddhist scriptures begin to emerge, originating from Korea and appearing during the mid-sixth-century reign of Emperor Kinmei, which coincided with Siam’s Dvaravati period.

Buddhist art flourished during the Heian period (ninth-13th centuries) as members of the nobility commissioned fine pieces. Two carved wood statues of the Buddha from this period are on display, including the Seated Yakushi Nyorai, which shows Chinese influence, and the Seated Dainichi Nyorai, believed to ward off misfortune.

Wiparat also notes the Seated Nyoirin Kannon Bosatsu, one of the manifestations of Avalokitesvara, depicted with six arms.

“That comes from esoteric Buddhism and is strongly influenced by Indian Buddhism. One of his arms holds the Wheel of Dharma, representing his protection of the world.

“While Japan learned of Buddhism from China and Korea, Thailand got it from Sri Lanka and India. The Japanese selected their most sacred Buddhist statues to show here as a way of blessing Thailand.”

An elaborate hakoseko (pocket purse) from the Edo Period, 19th century

One of the national treasures in the exhibition is an 11th-century painting of the 16 arhats (perfected persons), with bright paint on the reverse of the silk screen lending a gentle sense of colour, and pigments added sporadically to the front for highlights and shadows. The effect is strikingly three-dimensional.

“The historical artefacts made from silk and paper can’t be exhibited longer than four weeks at a time lest they be damaged by humidity or light,” says Phnombootra. “We’ll replace some pieces on January 24 with others of the same significance.”

The next part of the show covers the creativity and invention that flourished under the court aristocracy and the warrior (samurai) class between the Heian and Edo periods (early 17th to late 19th centuries).

A 12th-century sword is embellished with a pattern of long-tailed birds in mother-of-pearl, inlaid on Nashiji lacquer. The handle is wrapped in the skin of a white ray, believed imported from Ayutthaya.

“At the time, deerskin and stingray skin were among Ayutthaya’s chief exports,” says Wiparat.

European-style armour from the 16th century

You can also see European-style armour, including a cuirass lavishly decorated with the Chinese character for “heaven” and a silhouette of Mount Fuji.

There’s a jinbaori – a coat worn over armour – made from yak fur dyed black, and the formal garments of court ladies, pocket purses carried by ladies of the warrior class, and costumes and masks from Noh theatre.

The tea ceremony so deeply associated with Japanese culture dates to around 1,000 years ago, when the custom of drinking tea first took

root, an outcropping of Zen beliefs. Historical utensils used in the tea ceremony are shown.

Finally, Edo culture takes centre stage in the pageant of history as Japan’s cultural centre shifted from Kyoto and Osaka to the city that ultimately became known as Tokyo.

Among the innovations of the era were multicoloured woodblock prints (nishiki-e), among whose practitioners Hokusai is the best known globally.

Limited in their public appearances, women of the time expressed their individuality through fashion, as seen in the gorgeous garments and elaborate combs and hairpins.

THE GLORY OF BELIEF

>> “The History of Japanese Art: Life and Faith” continues through February 18 at the National Museum Bangkok on Na Phrathat Road, next to Thammasat University.

>> It’s open Wednesday through Sunday from 9am to 4pm.

>> Admission is Bt30 (Bt200 for foreigners).

>> Find out more at (02) 224 1333 and the “National Museum Bangkok” page on Facebook.

>> The exhibition is co-organised by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, Tokyo National Museum, Kyushu National Museum and the Thai Ministry of Culture’s Fine Arts Department.

Ruangsak Anuwatwimon created the artworks and photographs to raise awareness about the effects of air pollution and convince the Pollution Control Department to include particulates less than 2.5 microns in size in its Air Quality Index.

The installation “Memory” is a sculpture of a child, mother and elder that stresses the urgency to address the problem of pollution.

Surrounding it are more than 20 other installations fashioned from leaves covered in dust and collectively titled “Monolith Souvenir”.

The photos bear witness to the dangers caused by airborne particulates under 2.5 microns in size.

There are talks on topics such as “Where is Thailand in the PM2.5 Air Pollution Issue?”, “Smart and Sustainable City, 4.0 or 0.4?” “Transboundary Air Pollution in Southeast Asia” and “Dust Talk – Behind the Scenes of Polluted Places”.

Ruangsak, who attended the Poh-Chang Academy of Arts, believes that art’s function is able to make the world a better place. In 1994 he began recognising the possibilities that exist beyond merely presenting two-dimensional art.

IN AN INCREASINGLY uncertain world, a home that’s a haven of peace and prosperity is important to us all and, for many, that means turning to the traditional beliefs of feng shui. This ancient Chinese philosophy is not just about spatial arrangement, though, but is also applicable to art.

And now there’s a chance to see the very best of that art as renowned Singaporean feng shui master, Yun Long Zi, is showcasing 108 of his works worth a staggering Bt1 billion in an exhibition running at the Emporium shopping complex from Thursday through next Sunday.

Organised in collaboration with United Overseas Bank (UOB), “Colours of Prosperity and Elegance: The Feng Shui Art of Emeritus Master Yun and Lotus on Water” is part of what Yun calls “Celebrationism”, a movement that celebrates his work.

“The unifying quality of my art is that it celebrates all things worth celebrating, from health to wealth, and from relationships to prosperity. I focus on the positive energies and elements that I can draw on, such as love, joy, peace and hope.

“These are the subject matter that my art symbolises. Each piece is rendered in prized materials such as 18K and 24K pure gold and silver and infused with my inspiration of bringing prosperity and good fortune to people. I call them this subject matters ‘Heavenly Time’, ‘Earthly Resources’ and ‘Human Will’ and they are represented by outstanding characteristics. For example, the paintings change as day moves into night with phosphorescent paint that glows and comes alive in UV light,” says Yun, founder of the Lotus on Water Gallery.

Yun comes from a long time of feng shui masters and has absorbed the knowledge passed down by five generations of his family. His inclination towards Chinese and Western arts started at an early age and his work won him the Singapore Youth Festival art exhibition in his teens. He graduated top of the NTU School of Arts and School of Science with first-class honours in Chinese language and cultural studies and also won the Dr Wu Teh Yao Book Prize.

“There are as many as 18 layers on a single painting, eight at the very least. I use gold, silver, copper, minerals and precious stones to create colours. All these mean prosperity.

“Gold is a wonderful material. It doesn’t change colour even if you put it in the sun. When you put in the fire, it doesn’t reduce in weight, and when you put through water it does not rust. These are the unique qualities of real gold,” he says.

“Silver has the beneficial effect of killing bacteria. For example, when you put the milk in a silver cup, it will not spoil so easily. So it is about preservation. Prosperity is temporary, so you want it to last as long as possible and travel through the generations. That’s why we use silver.

“The peacock is about elegance. I think it is an animal from heaven. It has beautiful, big and heavy feathers, and that makes it difficult for the bird to run away from danger or to find food. It is the kind of animal that should not last but it does and gloriously too. I use the peacock in my painting to represent the glorious life, a being that God protects. When you look at the painting in the daytime you see a peacock. At night, when you turn on the UV light, it looks like the planet and the galaxy. So it tells us the truth of the universe. The universe follows the laws of attraction. The earth moves around the sun because the earth is attracted to the sun, and the moon revolves around the earth also because of attraction. When you have the energy of attraction, you attract all the good things into your life – in other words, prosperity. That’s the feng shui power,” Yun explains.

While some of his paintings are rendered on Chinese rice paper, many of those displayed in this exhibition are painted on a special paper known as dong ba. This, he says, is s handmade by tribal shamans using herbs from mountain ranges. Dong ba paper is believed to be sacred and can last for more than 1,000 years. His paintings are also crowned by precious natural elements such the gold and silver already mentioned plus bronze and natural vermilion ink. The latter is believed to be effective in warding off evil while bringing to life good wishes conveyed from the symbols in the paintings.

His images celebrate the best of nature’s wonderful palette and in all its magical glory, from flora to fauna – peacocks, cranes, cranes, Hulu plants, eagles and his signature peonies, as well as vistas and landscapes that encompass the smallest of creatures and the precious lives they lead.

His sculptures of Guan Yin and the Buddha are hand-sculpted from crystal.

“My grandfather is a poet, and a calligrapher. He wrote classical poetry. He told me I should not write classical poem, I asked him why. He replied, ‘who is going to understand it, you are writing something that cannot touch people, where is the relevance? It has no use’.

We have to preserve our traditions but tradition can only last forever when it is relevant to modern people. I feel that we have to ask ourselves, why do we want to do this? Why do we do feng shui for people to become richer, more prosperous, more elegant, become respected or win love? But if that what people need and want, we have to preserve that. And then we have to translate it so that it is relevant to modern people. So we have to adapt while keeping the essence, the beauty, and the spirit of the past. It must still bring prosperity and elegance and must help people achieve good relationships, wealth or become famous,” he |says.

At age 60, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook has retired from Chiang Mai University, where she was a professor of fine and applied arts, given to occasional controversy in the course of a three-decade teaching career. Her ambition lately has been to get back to writing, her other love.

But retirement is likely a meaningless concept to the multitalented Araya, as became clear in her just-ending exhibition at Bangkok’s 100 Tonson Gallery, where the whole story was told in “An Artist is Trying to Return to ‘Being a Writer’”.

It proved to be a perfect interweaving of her conceptual art and literature.

The painting “Soul of Chamoi and an Artist on the Beach” is on the cover of her novel “A Flowery Cry of Birth”. Photos courtesy of 100 Tonson Gallery

And, at the exhibition’s final evening on Thursday, she’ll launch her latest novel, “A Flowery Cry of Birth”, the fruit of her efforts during the show’s six-month run to achieve that “return” to writing, an endeavour the gallery commissioned.

The idea was to showcase Araya’s other talent, long overshadowed by her art. It’s been a success, so much so that Araya’s writing and art are intricately knitted together and virtually indistinguishable from one another.

Interestingly, she finds both pursuits equally therapeutic.

“I began writing when I was studying at Silpakorn University’s Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Art,” she says. “I wrote for the university’s journal. One of my articles criticised the idea of college hazing.”

Araya was a more active writer while pursuing a master’s degree in Germany in early 1990s, during which time she’d interview women labourers as part of her research. She’d write up her notes in Thai. “Writing in my mother tongue made me feel closer to home.”

She’s since written features and art criticism for the newspapers Matichon Weekly and Krungthep Thurakit and the magazines Lalana and Ploy Kam Petch.

“A Flowery Cry of Birth” is Araya’s fifth novel, after “Art Affair”, “Eastern Lady”, “Conversation with Death on the First Path on My Life” and “(He) is an Artist”.

Just as in her art, the writings are boldly liberal, avant-garde and thought provoking, tackling feminist issues and deeply emotional matters such as mourning and loss.

One of her best-known themes involves blurring the boundary between art and life. In a milestone undertaking, an acclaimed installation arose from feelings about deaths in her family, her own illness, the stray dogs she took in as pets, and her personal “academic revolution”.

In performance art, she dressed actual human corpses and read to them. She gave a lecture while pretending to be heavily pregnant. Her work, often controversial, has resulted in her name being mentioned along with those of Marina Abramovic, Barbara Kruger and Yayoi Kasuma.

Araya has participated in the world’s foremost festivals of contemporary art, including Documenta (13) in Germany and the Venice Biennale. In 2015, New York City’s Sculpture Centre hosted her first retrospective in the United States.

The show at 100 Tonson Gallery features recent works in poetry, performance art, video, sculpture, painting and installation.

In the video “The Cruel”, Araya criticises art education in Thailand. Photos courtesy of 100 Tonson Gallery

The standout piece is “The Cruel”, made last year, a two-channel video drawing on her experience defending her course-work for Chiang Mai University’s Multidisciplinary Art Department. It features a humorous re-enactment of her meeting with other esteemed art professors, who critique Araya’s art. It reveals the tense debate over what’s considered permissible and moral in Thai art.

“The Cruel” has echoes in another video made last year, “I was just told that my work is more or less too sad for Christmas”. Araya appears as two different characters on separate channels, in conversation about death, illness, the joys of youth and long-held desires.

One character is an academic, the other not, but the discussion is more profound and philosophical than what’s heard in “The Cruel”.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook views her 2016 installation “Dead Ovary Lullaby”. Nation/Rachanon Intraragsa

“Niranam Yummayooshi” from 2015 is a soundless video playing alongside “The Dead Ovary Lullaby”, a sculpture from a year later of two sleeping figures – a woman and dog slumbering on a metallic bed that could be a coffin or a womb. It represents Araya and her pet dreaming of the next life.

Another pooch appears in the 2017 installation “Some Unexpected Events Sometimes Bring Momentary Happiness”. This is Makrood, and in the video they’re playing in a backyard. Nearby is a sculpture of Makrood with broken legs – the state he was in when Araya rescued him from the street.

A naked figurine represented Western sensibilities contrasts with modestly clothed Thai at right in an installation. Nation/Rachanon Intraragsa

The sculpture “An Artist is Trying to Return to Being a Writer” takes the form of two bodies in two different states, gloriously alight and gloomy in despair, joined by two figurines, one naked and one clothed (both Araya), signifying contrasting sensibilities between West and East.

What we’re witnessing here is Araya’s disdain for restrictions being imposed on art in Thailand, with sculptures and fanciful dream projections juxtaposed like rivals – lightness and shadow, representation and repetitiveness, tranquillity and conclusion, birth and death.

Araya performs as dual characters in the video “Betweenness in ‘I was told that your work is more or less too sad for Christmas’”. Photos courtesy of 100 Tonson Gallery

And all of this is re-examined in her new novel.

For six months Araya abandoned art to immerse herself in writing the book, the longest she’s produced so far. It’s been described as a brilliant amalgamation of elements from her previous writings and her experiences as an artist.

The book, we’re told, explores the psychology of a woman in different phases of life, from tragic childhood to existential pain. It has heart-wrenching stories about relations between humans and between humans and animals, and it’s filled with “many erotic possibilities”.

 DUALITY IN EXPRESSION

– Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook will unveil her book “A Flowery Cry of Birth” at 100 Tonson Gallery on Thursday at 2pm.

– Afterwards there will be a discussion in Thai among author Sirem-orn Unhathoop, Adadol “May” Ingawanij, lecturer and independent translator Matt Changsupan.

– Find out more at http://www.100TonsonGallery.com and (02) 010 5813.

I NEVER REALISED I was living in paradise until one December afternoon a few years ago when I got into an argument with a receptionist at a four-star hotel in a Middle-Eastern country. Having discovered that the refrigerator in my room was for mini-bar items only and needing to put the German sausages I had bought at Munich airport in a cool place, I asked him whether I could leave them in the hotel’s kitchen. He refused, citing “security reasons” – his young country is constantly at war and all young men and women have to serve in the army for two years. My only option was to rent the hotel’s mini-refrigerator for US$2 a day for my entire stay, and I took this option, even knowing that two days of rent was already more than the cost of the sausages. When I told him that I’m from Thailand and had never encountered this kind of problem in my frequent travels around the world, his answer was concise and quite startling: “You’re from paradise”.

The set, costume and character in “Sawan Arcade” are almost inseperable in the first part./Photo Teeraphan Ngowjeenanan

B-Floor Theatre’s Ornanong “Golf” Thaisriwong’s new solo performance “Sawan Arcade” not only brought that incident to mind but also questioned whether this “kitchen of the world” in which I live is actually paradise. With plenty of sunshine all year round and the weather so predictable that we don’t need to read the forecast every day – though most of us pray that our houses will not flood during the rainy season, – it’s easy to say that it seems like a tropical paradise. Even with the ongoing social, cultural and political problems, we keep smiling although, as I always tell my foreign friends, the world famous Siamese smile doesn’t always mean that we’re happy nor that we agree with what they are saying. And for all the troubles, we haven’t taken much action, the reason being that in this interim period, such action might be deemed illegal. Some people joke that NATO stands for “No Action, Talk Only”.

In Thailand’s case, a more appropriate acronym would be NAFO for “No Action, Facebook Only”.

The set, costume, lighting and sound design all played strong supporting roles in this work. Entering the studio to find a place to sit was already a unique experience although I found myself wishing that the performance had continued its experiential character and the audience was given the option of walk around the space, no matter how difficult that might be. Audience members wishing to see the work should consider following the production team’s suggestion to wear comfortable shoes – sneakers are best – and leave bags at the door.

Stripped of the fanciful and idealistic images, Golf brings the audience back to reality towards the end. /Photo Teeraphan Ngowjeenanan

Golf was full on, physically and mentally, for this riveting physical theatre work and all members of the audience will have now realised why the performance had to be postponed from Bangkok Theatre Festival last November when her hand was bitten by her dog. It’s the kind of performance that can be put on once a day only, as I don’t think she would have enough energy left to do anything else. Her character also changed convincingly, through both voice and physical movements, from one part to another.

The 2015 revival of Golf’s last solo performance “Bang Lamerd” was well attended and documented by representatives of the military junta – a piece of freedom-of-speech news that was so well covered by international media that all performances completely sold out making it B-Floor’s most profitable work ever.

By contrast, last Wednesday, I couldn’t spot any member of the audience who might have been an army representative. The studio was packed though –unusually for a mid-week show only two nights after opening – with spectators from many walks of life, foreign expats and tourists included.

In fact, the military junta need not worry about this work, the political commentary is even subtler than that of “Bang Lamerd” but, of course, in any work of contemporary art that invites its audience to interpret and to continue thinking, it’s important to have absolute freedom of imagination. When she spoke about the fact that many people love to come here, to eat and then leave, I don’t think she literally meant tourists who come here to enjoy CNN’s best food of the world namely massaman curry.

The first month of the year is only half over and we’ve already had a significant stage work. Contemporary Thai theatre in 2018 is promising indeed.

SEE YOU IN THEATRE PARADISE

B-Floor Theatre’s “Sawan Arcade” continues tonight and Wednesday to Saturday, 8pm, at Democrazy Theatre Studio.

Tickets are Bt550 (Bt480 for students), at (094) 494 5104 and BFloorTheatre@gmail.com.

Find out more at http://www.BFloorTheatre.com.

Her installation speaks directly to the viewer, stressing the violence and tragic consequences of war through the use of materials as symbols. “Ruin”, says the artist, is not a story of any specific war but a representation of all conflicts in this chaotic world.

Born in Thailand’s south, the 30-year-old artist combines found objects, natural elements such as rocks and minerals, and painted elements that recall traditional Thai art and architecture. Through her abstract works, she explores Buddhist philosophy and cosmology. Utilising a combination of raw, natural materials with found objects of contemporary origin, her works imbue the painted designs and motifs endemic to traditional Thai art with the universal and persistent themes of loss, suffering, devastation, and the karmic cycles of death and rebirth.

Her accolades include top prizes in the Thai Traditional Painting Awards (2013), as well as the Young Thai Artist Awards (2006–2007). In 2015, her works were showcased at the “Thailand Eye” exhibition presented at the Saatchi Gallery, London, at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and at the Singapore Biennale last year at the Singapore Art Museum. In 2016, Pannaphan won the prestigious Benesse Prize.

1Projects is the brainchild of Charuwan Chanthop whose recent work includes Thai and Vietnamese photography exhibitions in Bangkok at MOST Gallery and in Singapore with The Artling, as well as curating the joint installation of Prasert Yodkaew and Richard Streitmatter-Tran at Art Stage Singapore. She has also presented video works by acclaimed Australian female artist Tracy Moffatt at the Ferry Gallery and is now moving to showcasing emerging Thai and international artists at her space in Bangkok.

A former shareholder in and gallery manager of the temporarily closed Whitespace Gallery, she has been involved with Thailand’s art scene for more than 10 years and ventured out on her own with 1Projects two years ago.

“I was mesmerised by the artist’s installation at the Singapore Biennale last year. We will also show Pannaphan’s new works ahead of the artist’s participation at the inaugural Bangkok Art Biennale 2018. Our next overseas project will be Pornprasert Yamazaki’s installation at the 2018 Art Stage in Singapore,” she says.

The newly renovated art space occupies 25 sqm on the ground floor of The Most House on Charoen Krung Soi 28 in downtown Bangkok. The art space is only steps from the Royal Orchid Sheraton (Sri Phraya Pier) or a short ride from MRT Hua Lamphong station and from BTS Saphan Taksin station.

For details, visit www.1projects.org.