Exhibition
December 16th, 2010 - January 15th, 2011
Number1Gallery proudly presents Longing for Siam, Inventing Thailand, by Sutee Kunavichayanont an exhibition of contemporary art that yearns for a past when Thailand, her borders constantly shifting and indeed sometimes contracting even as she sought territorial expansion, was on the brink of becoming a powerful nation.
Sutee Kunavichayanont is a leading Thai artist who first came to prominence in 1998 with his elephant, buffalo and tiger-shaped breath donation sculptures crafted from rubber. A second seminal series, History Class, was begun in 2000. Interactive, the series, appearing in several forms from the turn of the century, is composed of re-appropriated children’s wooden school desks that the artist has engraved with scenes illustrating Siamese/Thai history. Extending an invitation to all viewers to make rubbings from the engraved surfaces of the desks, Sutee is in fact giving his audience the opportunity to produce their own Thai political history text books.
Sutee had participated in several significant international art events such as 1st Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Arts (1999) in the United Kingdom, and the 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia (2006). His works are in the collections of prominent art museums and galleries worldwide including the Mori Art Museum, Japan, The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan, the Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, and the Queensland Art Gallery, Australia. In 2006, Sutee received a prestigious Manas Siensing Red Award 2 from the Pridi Banomyong Institute for his outstanding artistic creations and art related contributions.
Longing for Siam, Inventing Thailand, is a solo exhibition featuring Sutee’s latest body of works. With these new works, the artist invites viewers to look back at “Thai Mai” (New Thailand) from the 1930s to 1940s, a period when national unity was being built, the government using art to construct the nation. The show aims to offer a flashback to a time when the Kingdom of Siam’s early borders were being drawn. And during those years when the Kingdom’s physical outline was evolving, the “hats and shoes” were striving to make Thailand a powerful nation and extremely patriotic state.
Longing for Siam, Inventing Thailand is an installation comprising 600 small plaster soldiers, stop-motion video projections, and a video performance of the artist drawing on a huge black wall. The installation is presented in a setting designed to evoke the historical period preoccupied with the leadership’s slogan “Mala Nam Thai Soo Maha Umnaj” [The hats that lead Thailand to become a great nation.]. Viewers will be encouraged to participate in national map-making in an atmosphere that, thanks to old patriotic songs and tunes, recalls those long-ago times.
โหยสยาม ไทยประดิษฐ์ (แผนที่สยาม/ไทย), Longing for Siam, Inventing Thailand (Siamese/Thai Map), 2010
Stopmotion/DVD 2”, DVD player, LCD projector, plaster, Ply wood,
Dark room dimension : 360 x 612 x 240cm, Plaster doll : 10 x 9 x 33cm
เชื่อผู้นำชาติพ้นภัย, Believe in Your Leader, and the Nation will be Free from Danger, 2010
Painted tin sheet ,
Diameter 65cm
พระบาทสมเด็จพระจอมเกล้าเจ้าอยู่หัว, King Mongkut, 2010
Chalk on canvas,
68.5 x 99cm
มณฑลบูรพา, Monthon Burapha, 2010
Chalk on canvas,
115 x 160cm
รำวงเพื่อชาติ, “Rumwong” for the Nation, 2010
Painted tin sheet,
51 x 90cm
แหลมทอง, Laemthong, 2010
Chalk on Ply wood,
60 x 120cm
ไทยใหม่, New Thai, 2010
Painted tin sheet,
16 x 72cm
พี่น้องชาวไทย!, Brothers Thai!, 2010
Chalk on canvas,
55 x 69cm
ถ้าไม่อยากเป็นทาษ จงเป็นมหาอำนาจ, Do not be a slave, be a Power, 2010
Enamel on cloth,
300 x 400cm
สองฟากแม่โขงเป็นของเรา, Both Sides of Mae Khong River Belong to Us, 2010
Enamel on cloth,
300 x 400cm
เพลงสร้างชาติ, Songs Building the Nation, 2010
Painted tin sheet ,
20.5x98cm
หลัก 6 ประการ, 6 Commands, 2010
Painted tin sheet,
66.5 x 109cm
เราเชื่อเราไว้ไจไนผู้นำ, We Believe, We Trust in Our Leader, 2010
Painted tin sheet 31 x 103.5,
31 x 103.5cm
มาลานำไทยสู่มหาอำนาจ, The Hat Paves Our Road towards Power, 2010
Painted tin sheet,
26 x 120cm
ทุกสมัยไทยจะดีมีผู้นำฯ, Good Leader, 2010
Painted tin sheet ,
33 x 133cm