Fah Thai Magazine Mar-Apr 2020

ART MOVEMENT
“I was both curious and excited
about being given an opportunity
to participate in this exhibition,”
Ruangsak enthuses. The Bangkokbased
artist draws inspiration from
nature and presents these elements
again in Singapore with his piece
titled “Reincarnations”, in which
he examines species that are now
extinct or endangered due to the
destruction of their habitat.
Ruangsak believes art is a great
platform to raise issues of concern,
citing the recent Australian bushfires
and the haze that plagues Southeast
Asia every year. “It is my hope that
‘Reincarnations’ will help show how
fragile nature is and how important
it is for the world to get off its path
of destruction.”
Clockwise from
Top Left
Arnont Nongyao’s
presentation of
the ‘Opera of Kard
(Market)’
‘Far From Home’
features vine
flowers made from
leftover paint.
Arnont Nongyao
Bottom Left
Arnont utilises
sound in presenting
his art.
SOUND & POLITICS
Arnont, however, takes an entirely
new approach with his audiovisual
installation. The “Opera of
Kard (Market)” is an immersive
multi-screen installation with 12
channels that play back sounds
and scenes from local markets in
northern Thailand.
“With the ‘Opera of Kard’, I
wanted to convey the feeling that
I have when I visit my favourite
flea market back home,” says the
Chiang Mai-based artist.
“I wanted to project that unique
soundscape, with the sounds
of people, animals and cooking
seemingly coming together like
the music in an opera.”
In order to bring the artwork
together, he and his assistant
travelled around for three weeks,
recording sounds and visuals in 12
markets around northern Thailand.
Though he often adopts more
traditional styles of representation,
the artist maintains that he doesn’t
separate art forms. “I still enjoy
painting and sculpture, but I feel
sounds and vibrations are the first
elements we are exposed to as
humans. Even before we are born,
we are already listening to our
mother’s heartbeat and sounds
from outside her body.”
In the case of Paphonsak, his
works often engage with ongoing
social and political conflicts, and
have been displayed at international
expos like the Asia-Pacific Triennial
of Contemporary Art (Brisbane,
2015) and at Palais de Tokyo (France,
2006). At the Singapore Biennale,
the Nonthaburi-born artist is showing
“Far From Home”, a piece inspired
by “Kraibaan”, a journal written by
King Rama V in 1907.
Fascinated by the photographs
of European landscapes captured
by the monarch, he created 121
landscapes based on photographs
of countries where many Thai and
other Southeast Asian political
refugees reside. Though his work
has been called controversial,
Paphonsak believes that the
art community has grown more
receptive to this theme.
“I have seen and acknowledged
the movement of communities in
the art world in this region towards
this,” he explains. “Initially, the
push to address sharp political
and social matters in art was
seen as both difficult and risky,
but eventually we began seeing
more galleries, art institutions
and festivals as well as artists
becoming more open-minded
towards this genre.”
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