Dear friends and colleagues
So, on my second day in Bangkok I planned to – filled with enthusiasm – get up well before seven and be at those wats where art was being shown as soon as they opened and then see art till the late evening.
What are wats? Buddhist temples or pagodas. Three wats and five other art-sites were on or near the Chao Phraya river. The idea was that you could get boats along the river from one to another. A nice idea, except that, as I was about to find out, none of the eight sites, apart for Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), is actually close to a functioning boat stop.
The day started badly as I over slept and then was taken by a tuk-tuk not to Wat Arun as I asked but to a boat-stop where I could get a tourist boat – obviously he wanted to get a commission. No boats went from that stop to Wat Arun so I had to make him take me to one where they did. Of course, I was overcharged. The tuk-tuks drivers have grown unduly rapacious: later when I wanted to get from Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha) to Wat Prayoon (temple of iron fence) they demanded 1000 baht – about 14 pounds. I walked instead – it took twenty minutes.
Anyhow, finally, I got to Wat Arun and it was a pleasure to be there even though it was already filling up with tourists. I especially liked the work of Sanitas Pradittasnee: From the World inside/Across the Universe. Working in the Khao Mor, a replica of the Buddhist sacred mountain, she wanted to create an enhanced sacred enclosure and did so by using red acrylic sheets and mirrors. Initially this may have seemed rather Pop-ish but in fact as one walked round it was strangely calm and reflective.
A text nearby told us that it should lead us from the outer to the inner world and ask, “What are we holding on to? Is what we see what it is? Are we no different from the Khao Mor? Or aren’t we even cosmic dust, particles in the universe?”
This was an avowedly Buddhist biennale, an aspect accentuated by the various wall texts. Indicatively, only Thai artists were allowed to exhibit in the three Wats. However, the wall texts scattered around the biennale were often strangely admonitory and over definitive. I was therefore not surprised when I met with one artist who was very annoyed by the wall text for their work, feeling it was a total misrepresentation of it. Who owns the wall text? The artist or the curator? I feel artists are generally slack in not accepting that any text instaklled close beside their work becomes part of it and that they should take responsibility for that. Of course, for an exhibition like this which seeks to engage with a wider audience, wall texts are very important. But far too often, as here, they are bossy and serve to close down meaning rather than opening it up. I believe every wall text should say who wrote it: otherwise, most people will assume it is by the artist – or that, at least, they agreed to it.
On to Wat Pho which, as always, was jam packed with tourists thus precluding any sense of the numinous. Most of the six artists showing there had installed their work in outlying spots away from the bustling hall of the enormous reclining Buddha. I especially liked the works by Pannaphan Yodmanee. I saw them and liked them before I realised they were art: battered concrete pillars set into the khao sors (sacred mountain) and glades around the central building, each pillar touched with meticulous fragmentary paintings of pilgrims and travellers.
Of course, I had to go into the famous hall of the Reclining Buddha, but I wore one of the special garments Jisong Somboon had made for the Biennale. Like other works, labelled FAITH, it sought to emphasise the universality of religious faith and yearning. It had two convenient pockets to put your shoes in. A good concept and design, but I would have got more from the experience if the hall wasn’t so packed with tourists chatting, jostling and snapping.
What a relief to get to Wat Prayoon! A wat that was off the tourist route, somewhat run down, but so much quieter! Five artists exhibited in the sermon hall including Montien Boonma, now, of course sadly no longer with us. His Zodiac Houses of 1998-99, although they look like gothic towers and spires, were very much about a search for spiritual consolation after his wife’s death and his own declining health. (He became interested in astrology whilst on a residency in Germany) One can put one’s head inside each dome or spire and look up through tiny apertures above, or sense the light filtering into the darkness. If you have a decent sense of smell you can also sense the medicinal herbs enclosed in each sculpture.
Nino Sarabutra’s work was what the few visitors were interested in most. She filled the passageway around the stupa with tiny ceramic skulls 125,000 0f them apparently. You were invited to take your shoes off and walk on them. Accepting and embracing the nature and inevitably of death is key to Buddhist thought.
By now I was feeling a little over whelmed and also aware of how very behind schedule I was: six more sites to visit! And it was well past lunch time! Therefore, it was a great pleasure to sit down by the turtle pool and watch the turtles swimming. Their pool surrounds yet another sacred mountain, a large one, with a golden miniature wat on top. Around the pool Krit Ngamsom had placed metal turtles with on each a model of a religious building, wat, church, mosque.
Again, the message is that all religions come from the same impulses. Which is a nice sentiment, but why not then place some works in other sacred sites: for instance, the Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption which was right beside my next destination the East Asiatic building? Or the Haroon mosque, or the Hiundu Maha Uma Devi temple, or the Chinese temple, which are all also nearby?
However, enough for now! I have written enough! I am going to stop and have a quick lunch: some green curry perhaps? Or Pad Thai? It would be nice if you could join me. Next week we will move on to the East Asiatic Building and other sites.
See you next week
Tony