BACC Research
From visiting BACC, this are my initial reactions researched on 10 different artworks.
1.Rubbish, Dipping Sauce, Grass Peonie Bum series, Maisie Cousins, 2015
It is the series of photo that attract to many people because it is on the wall of the very first hall, once I walk in, my eyes attract to this artwork. Not just about to location but also the work itself that catch my eye. The artist uses cheerful color that will get attention from many people eyes together with the color pink of the wall. About the work itself the content of the painting give me a little feeling of nasty which it went different direction to the cheerful color that artist use. These can express the pain of the beauty or something contradict.
With everything in the picture such as soggy fruits, zoomed in body parts, beautiful plant parts, jelly guck and beetles, etc. Maisie want it to let audience to the choice of feeling enjoyment or to be horrified from the details. The artist facing the truth that we are what we eat, it is the effect of human consumption, one day we have to end up nasty like the waste of food, no escape. The work enhanced view on lost parts of our existence. The artist also produced the photobook that collect all the photo under the same name as this series of photo.
2.Cut Piece, Yoko Ono, 1964
In the same room, there were 2 different videos with the same content on both side of the room, I think one is from Asia side another one is from Eastern side. Both 2 videos is quite long but the Eastern side is longer. Since the video is long and there is no conversation only the sound of cutting the fabric and the audience reaction, it makes me a little bored but still wanting to know hat will going on next and what the reaction sound will be like. Focusing on the Eastern side, most people choose to cut the edge of women’s dress and whisper something, I think might be consolation however the women’s dress already been ripped off. And for the last people to come up on the Asian side, he kind of ask something before he cut off the rest of women’s top so, I wonder that it is his willing or the request form others
As in the video the women dressed on the stage with a pair of scissors and invite audience to cut off pieces of her clothes as she sat silently, which was intend to confront the issues of gender, class and cultural identity as the artist is an activist for peace and human right. As I research more about the video, it about the sexual aggression that the women become an object rather than a subject with a say about what is being done to her, people could so easily turn that women into a sexual object, at the beginning of her piece people are very hesitant to cut her clothing, but as the performance goes on people become more daring and more sexually aggressive even the last male cuts her bar straps.
3.Money, Tawan Wattuya, 2020
It the series of big banknote that I think takes place in the biggest wall inside the exhibition. When I take a look closely, artist put a lot if detail in every banknote using water color and it turn out very neat, the line is very sharp. Since I’m not good at using water color, its small detail very impressed me.
The artist recreated banknotes from all over the world by painting enlarge version of it using watercolor, let the properties of watercolor build up a new image for that banknote which create another beauty in itself together with blurriness and ambiguity. This change the message of the banknote that it become less valuable included the financial crisis, decrease of currency exchange rate according to economic condition, and even the growth of online transaction where didn’t require the actual money, only the digit and ID number. The artist also reflect that in the reality, thing thig that we saw it valuable today may be worthless in the future.
4.Peek!, Charit Pusiri, 2020
I really like this one, it allows people to interact with the work. I can know the basic idea of the work by just the interaction. It is the light box with the little hole for you to look in and see the picture of each situation which give me the feeling of that I’m really peeking about other people business. Every people have their curiosity, even you look peeking through the small hole, I’m sure most of you included me are moving your eyes position trying to see more detail around. I like the way artist decorate outside of the box to match with the content inside. The content inside mostly lead to the judgement of women like what we think about her or some thing that unethical, how people going to judge them however it is their business that we are peeking.
After reading the concept, it goes deeper than I thought at first. Not just that being nosey is an inborn human trait. The artist let viewers to mis interpret the story by giving this incomplete information, which it reflects to the social media that can convey many misleading information based on the receiver’s imagination. Sometime we judge the people from only the side we saw. The artist is best known for his cinematic style photography, all of his work is photograph so, this work is the first work that artist express it in different way where audience can interact with it. The photograph inside the light box still contain his style of shooting like his other photograph. From watching behind the scene of this project, I can see more detail that the artist put in the picture like the banknote that a little overlap from the bag.
5.Harmonimilitary, I-na Phuyuthanon, 2020
It is the dark room that projected the video of human cover with the big green fabric walking around in the forest that at first, I think it mock the dinosaur life because of the costume and setting, kind of confusing me. The sound in the room didn’t match well with the visual first I thought it a sound effect of alien video game but after a while it start to sound like war period in the movie. It contradicts with what’s on the video that without sound, it expresses peaceful and nature.
When reading the description after, there is a lot of detail. It’s about the war in the three border provinces in the south of Thailand which the costume is base on the Muslim religion which is their main religion the green color is to make them harmonious to the forest, in order to survive you have to blend with the environment. Even the beauty of nature that show in the video is under the military control as there is the sound of war.
6.Glitter’s Paradise, Dinh Q. Lê, 2015
The video show in the screen is the small heart beating on the hand that place over the flower garden. I’m interest in the technique the artist used, how they make the heart look like it beating by itself or is it all made up by program. Since I like to watch movie and tv series about surgery and doctor stuff, it is kind of attract me. Also, I like the color, mood and tone of the video. The red color of heart isn’t the red red that give the feeling of bloody, instead it makes me feel like it very clean and virgin so that I think people who scare in blood will able to appreciate the work. There also the contradict that heart could be something violence and it contrasts with the flower.
The video was inspired by the scandal of the pedophile British Rockstar, Gary Glitter that got arrested for molesting children. The small throbbing heart of an animal in the palm of a man is to show the violence of pedophile in which contrast with the flower that show fragility and will of children to live. Most of the artist works will relate to artist’s collective memories, anxieties and experience.
7.Dragoner Panzer (Dragon Tank), Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch, 2018–2020
When I first saw the porcelain in the shape of military tank, together with the situation right now, it gives a lot of meaning in my head. The tank represent army and military, could be that the aesthetic of the military, making them look valuable but actually it is not together with that it is easy to break, or these military are useless, only for showing.
However, the actual purpose of the artist creating this artwork isn’t the way I thought, it makes me a little surprise when knowing it, that is it really happen in the past, what’s going on back then. It inspired by the story of Frederick Augustus I of Saxony who obsessed with Chinese porcelain. Even in the negotiation with Frederick William I of Prussia, Augustus traded his 600 newly trained cavalrymen for a collection of 151 Chinese blue and white porcelain vases. Augustus chose to pursue his glory by collecting the Chinese porcelain vases while William valued the bigger army to fight in war for his own glory. The artist created this artwork as a symbol of value exchange that everyone have their own way to achieve their honor and power, for some might saw it as Chinese porcelain but for other might be in the military ways.
8.It’s What Inside That Counts, Rachel Maclean, 2016
It’s a video that use the vivid color, the colorful video that I think it can attract kids. It is about disadvantage of the social media, some points that I got are that the real person doesn’t look like in the picture, hate speech, we forget the value from inside only looking at the appeal.But there’s a lot of detail in the video make me confuse like what money represent, what those melting guys represent, is Data a person, why do the artist put disgusting thing on their face. In the video also have a parody of Buddhist to help calm/remind people, and parody to Disney princess where every thing is positive, singing a song which all contrast to the real world.
The video is a dark parody of the girl that surrounded by sugar coated monster and overbite teeth animal hide in shady corner planning to attack the girl and her obsessed in social media, in which represent that making youngster turn into merchandise and sexual object through advertisement and industry is the industry that create and abused by adult. Women and sexual have a close relationship with the aesthetic industry. Artist plays all the character in this video.
9.Two Little Soldiers, Pen-ek Ratanatuang, 2020
It is the short film of 2 soldiers that satirical to the situation that really happen. These two guys went in the forest with the guitar to kind of chilling and relax vibes which contrast with the radio they open said about the situation in the city that went worse. They met one girl and that girl ask for help to open the can food which the can food is from the military that give to villager in order to help those survive but she don’t even have a can opener, could relate to the hopeless people. And the girl asked for the reason why both two soldiers don’t join the situation in the city, the reason is that their leader didn’t choose them, could be sarcastic to the class in our society.
The film inspired by Guy De Muapassant’s Deux Amis (Two Friends). As the two rookie soldiers don’t have to join the protest situation in the city, they become bored. They find their freedom through smoking, play guitar, swimming, and go fishing. It shows that romance could take place any time and any where. The artist wants to express that what show in the video of two soldiers is like a parallel world to what said in the radio they open about the protest. Also reflect that the soldier as an individual, his personality is often lost because of the uniform and duty. The soldier that know but don’t really care about democracy together with the village girl that present hopeless of villager, no matter how hard they try, everything still the same to them.
10.Chapter of Revelation, Minah Son, 2018–2020
It is the artwork that allow people to interact with by that people will read the text from low angle view in order to understand the text since the text have been squeeze together looks like a bar code. However, there is no instruction for us to look from that point of view, but I think that we used to see kind of this letter so, we do the same to this artwork, we did the same as people before us did. But if you look closely, you can still see the characteristic of each alphabet together with the artist use the same color for the same alphabet.
The artist types some chapter in the bible using artist’s letter that look like bar code, in which allow you to read only in certain angle. Artist shows that her typeface can convey different meaning and value and also leave the question to an audience about the text’s meaning and its medium.