INTERNATIONAL ARTIST? (ASIA VERSION) (2012, Wantanee Siripattananuntakul, A++++++++++++++++)

This art work comes in the form of Snakes and Ladders game. Many squares in the game contain some anecdotes of or funny parodies on the Thai art scene. The events described in the square can move you up or down in the game.

The events described in the squares are something like this:

1.You give tiger balm (ยาหม่อง) to art exhibition attendees. A curator is impressed by this kind of art very much. Your career is advanced a lot.

2. You cook spicy papaya salad (ส้มตำ) for art exhition attendees, but it gives them diarrhea. Your exhibition is shut down.

3. Your film project THE LOVE SPELL OF GRANNY MIAN (มนต์รักยายเมี้ยน) gets a lot of attention.

This art work is in the exhibition CULTURE: COMMEMORABLE, FORMLESS, SHADOWLESS, which is held on the fourth floor of BACC until March 11, 2012.

THE RIPPLE (2012, Chumpon Utayophat, A+30)

This art exhibition is held at Jamjuree Art Gallery until February 21, 2012. I like this exhibition very much, because some wood carving works in this exhibition make me feel extremely calm. It seems as if some wood carving works in this exhibition possess the power of tranquility, and I'm completely overwhelmed by it. My most favorite work in this exhibition is the wood table called RIPPLES AND LAND NO.1 (2011). Looking at this table makes me feel like meditating.

If I have to screen some films for this exhibition, I would choose these films, because these films are also about water, and their power of tranquility casts a spell on me:

1.FLOW (2011, Chew Win Chen, Malaysia)

2.HIGH KUKUS (1973, James Broughton)

3.PISCINE (2002, Jean-Baptiste Bruant + Maria Spangaro)

I'LL NEVER SMILE AGAIN (2012, Prapat Jiwarangsan, art installation, A+30)

http://wtfbangkok.com/index.php/2012/01/13/prapat-jiwarangsan-i%E2%80%99ll-never-smile-again/

This art installation includes a video installation called BURN 19 AUG 2011 (18.5 min, A+/A), but what I like the most in this exhibition is the collaged photo THRONE NO. 1 (A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++).

KRASUESAO WAS SHOWN WHILE I WAS BORN

I just visited the exhibition PROXY (2011, Proxy, curated by Josef Ng, A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++) at WTF Gallery and learned from this exhibition that the film which was shown in Thailand around the time I was born (February 1973) is the horror film KRASUESAO (1973, S. Naowarach). I think it is very appropriate that this film was shown while I was born.
http://wtfbangkok.com/index.php/2011/11/19/proxy/

Talking about my birthday, I also noticed that Philipp Rösler, the economy minister of Germany, was born in Vietnam in February 24, 1973, or just two days before me. His life seems like a total success, while mine is not. Hahaha.

GHOST ORB (2011, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, exhibition)

PLANKING (2011, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, A+++++++++++++++)

JELE-BEAUTIE (2011, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, A+++++)

9 MONTHS SELF-PORTRAIT (2007, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, A+)

GHOST ORB (2007, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, A+)

VILLAGE AND ELSEWHERE (2011, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, A+++++)

One thing that I think is very interesting in this exhibition is its censorship. If I understand it correctly, in one of the two videos shown in this exhibition, the real story about a female killer in the village is censored from the video. But I'm not entirely sure about this.

In one of the two videos, a monk is trying to teach some moral lessons to the villagers by using a photo of Jeff Koons and the painting JUDITH BEHEADING HOLOFERNES by Artemisia Gentileschi as his teaching props. It seems that the brutal killing done by women in JUDITH BEHEADING HOLOFERNES reminds the monk of some real murders in the village happening a long time ago. But when the monk starts talking to the villagers about this real murder, the scene stops. Then we see what seems to happen after a few minutes have passed and after the story of the real murder case has already been told. If I remember it correctly, the monk said something like this to the children, "You can ask Aunt Da about this. She will not chop your heads off."

I have seen this video only once, so I'm not sure if I understand it correctly or remember it correctly. But I guess the monk may have talked about a female killer in the village, but the story is censored from the video to avoid some troubles with some living persons. I find it very interesting. It seems reality has triumphed over fiction again. The painting JUDITH BEHEADING HOLOFERNES may look extremely horrifying, but it may be less horrifying than the real story about a female killer in that Thai village.

Maybe I just misunderstand it. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I also like it very much that this video makes me realize that many ancient Thai paintings on the walls of many Thai temples are "comparable" to these works of Jeff Koons and Artemisia, because the ancient Thai paintings talk about immoral things, too.