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Published on August 19, 2007

Nine of Thailand's best-known artists have a show in Beijing this month that utilises their usual iconography - breasts, Buddhas, big hair and bright pinks - to regard mainland China with something between awe and admiration.

The exhibition "Thai Contemporary: Charm and Chasm" is at the Beijing branch of Tang Contemporary. Tang has no plans so far to bring it to its Bangkok outlet, but it will be at the Guangdong Museum of Art in November and December.

Pinaree Sanpitak, Sakarin Krue-on, Kamin Lertchaiprasert, Manit Sriwanichpoom, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Vasan Sitthiket, Navin Rawanchaikul, Natee Utarit and Apichatpong Weerasethakul are giving the Chinese something to scratch their heads over.

" 'Charm' is a word that's often used to describe the heart of Thailand and its people," says the curator, Bangkok-based Singaporean Josef Ng.

But beneath the surface, he comments, "the country cannot escape from the constant battering of uncertainties, collapses and conflicts of all kinds happening time and again, usually followed by a resurrection process that often offers more confusion than solutions.

"The locals don't know what or whom to follow. Foreigners are often being given conflicting signals about the current conditions of the country. There is no end to 'chasm' as long as the country doesn't enable itself to walk the path of continuity and progress."

Perhaps "chaos" would be a better word, but at any rate, into the gulf between charm and chasm, Manit dispatches his "Pink Man", in the form of his artist friend Sompong Thawee, dressed in a pink business suit, taking a dim view of this greedy world.

Having photographed Pink Man in all kinds of situations over the past 10 years, Manit has now given him a third dimension. He's replicated in dozens of figurines and a life-size fibreglass model, all poised in a pit, terracotta-warrior style, ready to crawl out and invade China.

Rirkrit, who has cooked Thai curry in galleries around the globe, had some hungry Chinese waiting for him who regard him as Thailand's No 1 artist. Expectations were high.

So he and Ng came up with a Rirkit look-alike called "Number One" - a stand-in who'd ostensibly never travelled overseas before and, with a bodyguard at his side (played by Angkrit Ajchariyasophon, also an artist), strolled around at the opening saying absolutely nothing.

Chinese contemporary art tends to be about size - and the bigger the better - prompting Rirkrit and Ng to head in the opposite direction. No curry for this show; on display in a jeweller's glass case is the smallest work in the exhibition - a diamond cut into the shape of a grain of rice.

Vasan, meanwhile, has grouped his own portrait among those of Mao Zedong, Osama Bin Laden and Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho in "Foursome", a fearsome meditation on personality and context.

Chiang Mai-based Kamin used to be one of Thai art's enfants terribles, loud and sarcastic, but in the mid-'90s he discovered the dharma. Among his most memorable works is "If You Saw Dharma, You'd See Me", a large statue of the Buddha made of shredded banknotes.

In this show there are cash-forged Buddhas walking, sleeping, standing and sitting, in a further diatribe against the replacement of truth, faith and vision with materialism.

Fresh from planting rice outside a German castle as part of the prestigious Documenta 12 exposition, Sakarin is still exploring communal agriculture in Beijing. His installation "Since 1958" is made of human hair.

That was the year that Mao Zedong unveiled the Great Leap Forward, by which the country's economy would shift from agrarian to industrialised. The plan proved a disaster, but at least China today is one of the world's largest exporters of human hair.

The wigs adorning Thai hi-so ladies are made from Chinese hair, and Sakarin deprived them of a few crates so he could build his artwork and ship the tresses back to their place of origin.

Navin is still assembling his Navin Party and tracing the world's great Navin diaspora. He's unlikely to find as many namesakes in China as he did in India, but Beijing's fans of conceptual art should enjoy the pseudo-manifesto he's written for his party. It's a little red book of quotations, but they're not his words - he's borrowed them from various sources, including dada writings and, yes, Chairman Mao.

Natee goes for straightforward nationalist symbolism by flying the Thai flag, which he sees as a beacon of hope as well as pride. In his paintings the flag is in motion, as if a constant wind keeps the red, white and blue flying high without ever going down.

Pinaree has recruited a local restaurant for her "Breast Stupa Cookery" project, creating more dishes using her breast-shaped moulds. On three tables, respectively, are TV sets showing her previous projects, cups of fruit juice for the viewing public, and breast-shaped pieces of paper awaiting visitors' ideas about food.

Finally, film director Apichatpong is screening "Luminous People", his documentary contrasting the Mekong River of yesteryear - when it played such a crucial role in the lives of the villagers lining its banks - and its denigrated existence today.

For more about the show, visit TangContemporary.com.

Khetsirin Pholdhampalit

The Nation