Teh - Thai Art: currencies of the contemporary

Thai Art

Thai Art

Currencies of the Contemporary

David Teh

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

2017 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Teh, David, author.

Title: Thai art : currencies of the contemporary / David Teh.

Description: Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016031919 | ISBN 9780262035958 (hardcover : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Art, Thai--21st century.

Classification: LCC N7321 .T44 2017 | DDC 709.593/0905--dc23 LC record available at

EPUB Version 1.0

For my family

Acknowledgments

This book owes its existence to the trust and belief of a great many people. As with any study as long in its gestation, there are more who deserve my thanks than I can hope to credit here. Indeed, the research began long before I had any conception of where it might lead. Of the many people and organizations who have supported it in one way or another, a few deserve special mention.

Even before I moved to Thailand, the Sophonpanich family had given me a home away from home there. For their unreserved generosity I will always be grateful. My entry into the Thai art world was eased by an Asialink Arts Management Residency, hosted by the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, Royal Thai Ministry of Culture. Some of the first, tentative steps in the writing were taken during a residency afforded by Eyeline Publishing and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. Its completion was assisted by a short stay in Hong Kong, generously hosted by the Asia Art Archive and Spring Workshop. And I have been blessed with the hospitality of Mr. Eric Bunnag Booth and the James H. W. Thompson Foundation in Bangkok, which has taken many forms over many years.

Much of the fieldwork was made possible by a grant from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore, which also contributed to the books production costs. Support from the Kadist Art Foundation ensured that fees could be paid to the artists who have kindly granted me permission to reproduce their images. I am very grateful to all of them. For help with images and other information I would also like to thank Oliver Hanley at the Austrian Film Museum, Judy Gunning at the Queensland Art Gallery, the Thai Film Archive, Jan Pfeiffer, Kornkrit Jianpinidnan, Uthit Atimana, Chatvichai Promadhattavedi, Chayanoot Silpasart and the principals and staff of Numthong Gallery in Bangkok, and gb agency in Paris.

This book did not begin as a scholarly mission, but emerged gradually from my everyday working life as a critic and curator. I do not profess any special academic objectivity, for the research was inspired and richly informedsometimes accidentallyby the people, places, and projects I encountered, and far more by observation and discussion than by written sources. It would be fair to say I havent always been the most generous critic. I am therefore all the more humbled by the openness with which Thai artists, curators, and critics have included me in their activities and conversations. I hope that in return, this book will make some small contribution to projects and discussions to come.

Perhaps my greatest debts are owed to four remarkable women who have opened countless doors to my understanding of art in a place where what motivates it, and the rewards it promises, are often far from obvious. It was with Manuporn Luengaram that I first curated an exhibition in Bangkok. Nothing could have prepared me better for what was to come, and I could not have asked for a better shepherd. Gridthiya Gaweewong, May Adadol Ingawanij, and Mary Pansanga have been dependable guides, generous collaborators, and forgiving teachers throughout the books preparation. Without their unwavering support, companionship, and good humor, it would not have been realized. Of the many other friends I have interrogated along the way, Apinan Poshyananda, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Arin Rungjang, Pratchaya Phinthong, and Chitti Kasemkitvatana have probably endured the most. I thank them for their candor and their patience.

The arguments that follow were developed in the course of many sustained dialogues. May Adadol Ingawanij and Paul Rae have been especially giving interlocutorstheir thoughtful and detailed readings have much improved several of the chapters. I am also very grateful to Ida Aroonwong, Warisa Kittikhunseri, and Aan Journal for taking up the unenviable task of making some of my ideas properly accessible to a wider Thai readership. Geert Lovink has been an energetic reader and a font of priceless advice, as have John Clark, Nora Taylor, and Patrick Flores. Thanks are also due to Olivier Krischer, John Listopad, several anonymous reviewers, and the editorial teams of the journals Third Text, Afterall, and ARTMargins. And I must thank Roger Conover for his sensitivity to the books peculiarities, and for taking a chance on it despite them. Others have supported and provoked this research in ways that were probably not apparent to them. They include Kevin Chua, Lucy Davis, Ho Tzu Nyen, Lee Weng Choy, Benedict Anderson, Cosmin Costinas, Hyunjin Kim, Rosalind Morris, Lucy Steeds, Phattarawadee Phattaranawik, Hammad Nasar, and Joan Kee. For all the help Ive received, though, responsibility for any deficiencies in these pages is, of course, entirely my own.

Finally, I wish to thank Nina Miall, Jasper Knight, and Viviana Mejia for their unstinting encouragement, and for putting up with my divided attentions; and my dear family, especially my mother, Margaret, and my wife, Dona, for so many years of love and forbearance.

Notes Regarding Prior Publication

Earlier drafts of chapter 1 were published in Thai translation (by Warisa Kittikhunseri) in Aan Journal 3, no. 2 (2011): 142161; and in English as Traveling without Moving: Historicizing Thai Contemporary Art, Third Text 26, no. 5 (2012): 567583.

Parts of chapter 2 were published in Thai translation (by Warisa Kittikhunseri) in Aan Journal 2, no. 2 (2009): 140151.

Parts of chapter 3 were published as Itinerant Cinema: The Social Surrealism of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Third Text 25, no. 5 (2011): 595609.

Parts of chapter 4 appeared in Chinese translation (by Stephanie Lu) in Biljana Ciric and Nikita Yingqian Cai, eds., Active Withdrawal: Weak Institutionalism and the Institutionalization of Art Practice (Shanghai: Times Museum Guangzhou / Shanghai Scientific and Technological Literature Press, 2014).

An early iteration of chapter 5 was published as Unframing the Nation: The Moving Image and Its Parergon in Southeast Asia, in Fuyubi Nakamura, Morgan Perkins, and Olivier Krischer, eds., Asia through Art and Anthropology (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013).

An earlier version of chapter 6 was published in ARTMargins. Its development was supported by Para/site, Hong Kong, and the Asian Culture Complex, Gwangju.

Prefatory Note

This book was written during the reign of Bhumipol Adulyadej, ninth king of Thailands Chakkri dynasty, who left this world on 13 October 2016. As it goes to press, the people of Thailand share their loss with a unanimity they have not known for many years, and are unlikely to know again for many years to come. A tenth reign has yet to begin.