View of “Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần: iii.x_Unrealized Utopia,” 2024. Steel form: Analysis of an Image, 2024. Hanging: TUU–Das Kino, 2023. Utopia, as concrete as it is elusive, is the spectral pillar upholding so many Western schools of thought, from Christian belief in a messianic deliverance to the Marxist ideal of a classless society. Yet Arlette Arlette […]
A cartography of Bangkok and its parallel manifestations, BAB and its seventy-six artists strove not only to showcase its breadth of artistic creativity and engagement, but also to paint a complex portrait of its home city as a melting pot for the old and new, the local and the foreign. Yet fantasy is not all
Bangkok: Bangkok Art Biennale 4th edition – Nurture Gaia Read More »
It has been a great honor to write, converse, and think alongside the artmakers of Southeast Asia for the last two years. This TOP TEN list, while shedding light on critical artistic practice and unconventional exhibitions, is nowhere near exhaustive. Wrapping up 2024 and preparing for 2025 with a heart filled with joy and gratitude.
For artist Liew Kwai Fei‘s solo show (23 October – 17 November, 2024), organized by The Back Room KL, titled 排一排 Side by Side 排一排, I contributed an as-told-to essay in the form of a monologue that offers an insightful portal into the working mind of one of Malaysia’s most prolific contemporary painters, how he
Timoteus Anggawan Kusno, Asset Object Related to “After Colossus,” 2024, machine-learning-trained generated images and archival images on 35-mm film, acrylic, each 1 7⁄8 × 1 7⁄8″. In Timoteus’s recent exhibition “Fever Dream” at Kohesi Initiatives, Jogja, viewers encountered a cornucopia of objects, from ominous, blurry charcoal drawings of dictators and colonial figures to large-scale installations
View of “Ade Darmawan: Water Resistance,” 2024, Cemeti Institute for Art and Society, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Photo: Kurniawan Widodo. Tuban (2019–), in the first room, was a mélange of furniture, found paraphernalia, and a distillation apparatus. Electric stoves were placed on wooden dining tables, reclining chairs, and wardrobes, transmitting heat into glass distillers and condensers. Various
Pinaree Sanpitak, Gathering Table, 2023, acrylic, drypoint, feathers, and gold leaf on canvas, 86 5/8 × 98 3/8”. “The title “Fragile Narratives” is a reflection on how precarious our world is, a contemplation on how we can keep balanced while still making the best out of this life. For me, this sense of fulfillment often
As part of the Jakarta Biennale 2021, titled ESOK, I collaborated with curator Grace Samboh to curate an exhibition about crossings: of languages and translation, of migration through plants and via screen, of a perpetually weird state when you are ready to shift and move anytime, yet always eager to dig down for roots. Titled
Pengembara Molek – Cỏ Cắc Cớ – ꦏꦼꦝꦺꦪꦴꦃꦲꦤƖꦩꦸꦮꦒꦸ,: Exhibition Catalog Read More »
Screencap from Everyone is… Image courtesy of the artist and Artforum. “In a time when hypernyms such as “Anthropocene” and “nonhuman” are becoming desensitized in contemporary art, is it still worthwhile for artists to question our seemingly unsalvageable relationships with other species and explore potential modes of alternative communication with them? For Wantanee Siripattananuntakul, this
Taiki Sakpisit, Dark Was the Night, 2024, two-channel 4K video projection, color and black-and-white, sound, 15 minutes 30 seconds. “In this exhibition, sound functioned as an invisible compass, guiding Sakpisit’s video editing and eliciting moments of suspension and anticipation that further submerged viewers into his video pieces. Alternating between found sounds, dreamlike melodies, and other