Somebody pinch me

Dubbed "Dreaming in Public", Gallery Soulflower's first major  exhibition of 2009 showcases the work of four contemporary artists, two from Thailand and two from India.

The title announces the show's contrasting themes of dreaming—private, personal and individualist - and the public space—indifferent, collective and consensual. The two terms imply opposite ideas, and yet have a tendency to permeate one another.

Overseen by the Indian ambassador Latha Reddy last month, the show's opening saw the launch of a book of the same name, compiled by its curator Brian Curtin.

The exhibition is interesting for the diverse current of ideas that springs from the artists' different cultural backgrounds but flows into universal - if mysterious -- meanings.

"Our aim is to push the potential of contemporary art and reveal its new directions," says Natasha Tuli, founder and director of Gallery Soulflower, the first in Bangkok to focus on art from the subcontinent. Accordingly, the gallery showcases everything from conceptual art to paintings, installations, sculptures and new media.

"Dreaming in Public" follows this blueprint, with each of its artists displaying different media, though all are coherently linked by title's themes.

The first section of the show, by Thai artist Jakkai Siributr, features hand-embroidered patchwork tapestries as well as amulets made with the same material. More bizarre is his ornament-like sculpture of a stag's head with zebra's body, complete with golden rabbits as jockeys.

One of the few Thai artists to adopt tapestry as a medium, Jakkai uses a "layering" process that extends beyond the actual sewing to the treatment of the fabric, dyeing and colour combinations, as well as cutting techniques. His choice of coarsely woven thread, pins, tape and plastic beads lends a distressed feel to the surface of the works.

The second Thai artist featured is Araya Rasdjarmrednsook, who has built herself an international career with her sensitive observations on human nature.

The two pieces displayed by her are videos featuring a group of Thai rural folk asked to view and discuss 19th-century European impressionist and realist paintings. The unlikely scenario is amusing at first, but the rustic perspective of these art critics turns out to be surprisingly enlightening. The work is daring and unique, and succeeds by provoking much thought in the viewer.

For their inspired use of an unusual medium, the pieces by Indian artist Hema Upadhyay are a standout in the show.

 Upadhyay has stuck down cut-out vinyl figures of female forms in different postures to create an intricate mosaic on the gallery floor. The artist has also contributed two motif-based paintings of vines, flowers and birds.

Onto these standardised images of nature she superimposes her photographic self-portraits, echoing the exhibition's theme of the individual dreamer embedded in impersonal reality.

The last artist showcased, Sheba Chhachhi, adds shine to the show thanks to her medium -- light-boxes consisting of layers of glimmering screens printed with a photographic collage.

The finished works create an enigmatic and shifting picture. The effect is filmic and dream-like, with yoga practitioners, animals and Hindu deities crawling over Google-Earth views of cities.

Another of the artist's installations on display is a video of a swimming elephant, the images of which disintegrate and then reintegrate in a snowstorm of pixels.

Like the elephant, visitors to the show can expect to find themselves afloat, navigating a fast-flowing dream world of different images, symbols and ideas.

 Located in Silom Galleria's basement, Gallery Soulflower hosts "Dreaming in Public" until July 27. For more information, contact (02) 630 0032, (086) 082 1573 or info@gallerysoulflower.com.