Brandnew 2009: A forum for young artists and art critics

Chulalongkorn University Art Centre
March 13 – April 14, 2009
Participating artists:
Bussaraporn Thongchai, Duangkamol Sawangsin & Promboon Choonchuongchoti
Participating art critics:
Suriya Shaicharoen, Narongsak Nilkhet, Thanawat Kanpai, Parinee Insongnoen

Bangkok University Gallery (BUG)
March 21 – April 30, 2009
Participating artists:
Olan Netrangsi, 24 hrs Art Project ( A collective art project by Kritsada Duchsadeevanich & friends)
Participating art critics: Lalinthorn Pencharoen, Paweena Auanomjit

Brand New 2009 is curated by Gridthiya Gaweewong
Assistant to curator: Mary Pansa-nga

It has come to a point where I’m not sure if this exhibition is recognised solely as a platform for promoting the works of new Thai artists or that there’s an expectation that these artists would soon join the ranks of their predecessors to become the hot new thing in Thailand’s contemporary art scene. After all, the exhibtion is known to be  a launch pad for the career of some of Thailand’s most well-known contemporary artists (Arin Roongjang, Porntaweesak Rimsakul, Yuree Kensakoo etc.). Reflecting on this, I reckon it does work both ways. And actually… why waste time doubting it anyway? It’s a good art project when you get right down to it.

I’m talking about the Brand New exhibition which was initiated by Bangkok University Art Gallery (BUG) in 2003. The concept of Brand New is to have a curator identify a group of young Thai artists who are recent graduates from either local and international art universities, featuring a developing body of their works without any compulsory themes. This is considered a golden opportunity for many young artists who know how hard it is to show in galleries around Bangkok, especially good ones.

There are a lot of new things for Brand New this year. For start, Brand New 2009 has Gridthiya Gaweewong, who has many years of experience in working with young artists, as the guest curator. She is also the co-founder of Project 304 and one of few seminal Thai curators who has helped shape Thailand’s contemporary art landscape. Her presence in Brand New 2009 brings an added level of professionalism to the show.

Another new thing is that Gridthiya doesn’t only select 5 young artists but also pick 6 young art critics, whose dreams are to pursue their careers as professional art critics in the future, to work on their criticism skill for the first time and publish them in the exhibition catalogue. This is another golden opportunity! I bet you know how difficult for young writer to get their first piece published.

Also, this year’s Brand New is held in two locations, the Bangkok University Art Gallery as well as the Chulalongkorn University Art Centre.

Exhibited in Chulalongkorn University Art Centre are ‘Insecure Emotional State’ by Duangkamol Sawangsin, ‘Smoking’, ‘Experience’ and ‘Control’ – three pieces of video works- by Promboon Choonchuangchoti, and progressive feminine drawings by Busaraporn Thongchai.

The first two artists’ works share a common expression of personal emotional states, reflecting on the environment each of their characters inhabit. While Duangkamol portrays her insecure emotional state by creating an imagined urban landscape based on her manipulated photography which has a woman experiencing vertigo, almost falling from those unbalanced landscape, Promboon demonstrates the lack of self-confidence in ‘Expereince’ VDO installation that plays a guy hesitating to jump into the water in the pool. In ‘Smoking’, even a seemingly small issue, such as the smoking-free regulation which was implemented in Thailand a couple years ago, is exaggerated. Promboon pokes fun at the smoker’s fear of smoking any public spaces suggesting both the lack of confidence as well as the attendent anxiety forced upon a contemporary subject by his social conditions.

Duangkamol Sawangsin

Promboon Choonchuangchoti

Among the three exhibitions at Chlalongkorn Art Gallery, I’d say Bussaraporn’s work is the most outstanding, not only because her drawing somehow reminds me of the wit and gloom of Tim Burton’s The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy, she has also effectively raised the gender question through these drawings. Mainly, I think she questions about how society decides our sex and then how gender decides our role. Of course, the graduate from Silpakorn University doesn’t offer any absolute answer but she does challenge the female artist’s role. Normally, when Thai female artists talk about sex, they tend to use metaphor or symbol. Actually, there is no rule that female artists have to resort to symbolism when talking about sex but it has become a norm. Bussaraporn isn’t embarassed by depicting sexual organs in her art in an obvious manner. This makes her works seem more like the artworks of male artists. It has also probably open a new door for female Thai artists.

Promboon Choonchuongchoti (Photo courtesy of Pongpon Yuttharat)

Promboon Choonchuongchoti

The question related to the effect of invisible power on people’s identity continues in Olan Netrangsri’s Dice, exhibited at Bangkok University Art Gallery. ‘Dice’ is a video art installation, taking its inspiration from the snake and ladder board game to comment on an unseen power, as well as the choices and people’s interaction towards such issues.

Olan Netrangsri

Another artist who stole the spotlight was probably Krisada Duchsadeevanich, coming up with another ’24 hrs’ art project. ’24 hrs’ is a collaborative and on-going art project that started in 2007 by a group of students from the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts at Silpakorn University. Their first project was held in the deserted house in the Sukhumvit area where they spent 24hrs running their exhibition for the public, aiming to bridge the gap between art and viewers. As a leader of the group, Krisada proposed this project as his artwork to Brand New 2009. Once he was selected, it meant that he was not the only artist who would participate in Brand New 2009 along with the other four chosen artists, it also meant that other young artists who are ’24 hrs’ collective were roped in as well. Basically, Krisada used the space at BUG as an open space for his fellows artists to exhibit their works. In many sense, Krisada created a new gallery within a gallery. As suggested by the project’s title, audience get chance to see a new exhibition everyday and the team has to work 24hrs a day, removing and installing new works for the exhibition at night.

Krisada Duchsadeevanich

And in case you’re wondering, we no longer live in an age where Krisada’s project is questioned if it is an artwork or not. Why? Funnily enough, it’s no longer a ‘brand-new’ issue anymore. After all, we’ve experienced the artist-turn-chef in the gallery many times over. So just enjoy it!

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Tunyaporn Hongtong writes for Art4D, a bilingual art and design magazine based in Bangkok.