A major contemporary art exhibition about the Deep South is on display at a museum in Chiang Mai, one of the biggest gatherings of artists from the region, with the addition of others whose works touch on the stories of conflicts and violence in the southernmost provinces.
"Patani Semasa" opened last night at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in San Kamphaeng, Chiang Mai. It features 27 artists who work in painting, photography, installation pieces and video art.
The majority are from "Patani", the generic and historic name of the provinces of the Deep South. Many are women, and while the exhibition generally showcases the development of contemporary art in the region, the dominant theme at this show is the loss, reflection and hope that come with the protracted unrest plaguing the region for decades, particularly since 2004.
"The South is characterised by differences, but I hope art can transcend those differences and speak of something higher," said Pichet Piaklin, one of the senior artists in the show.
Jehabdulloh Jehsorhoh, whose paintings of Malay life turned darker after 2004, spoke emotionally of the difficulties facing Muslim artists in the Deep South and how a major exhibition could elevate the status of regional artists.
On another wall, paintings by Kameelah I-lala show a faceless Muslim bride in an elegant wedding dress, her visage hollowed out "so that her sadness would not be shown."
Opening evening kicked off with a performance by Sea-Write winning poet Zakariya Amataya, who recited a Malay and Thai poem about identities, conflict and the broadening of horizons. In his talk earlier, Zakariya, a Narathiwat poet who's fluent in Malay, Thai and Arabic, discussed the limitations of jawi script used in the region and how the Deep South needed to be "unfrozen" before it could move on.
A photograph by Ampannee Satoh
The act of showing a Deep South exhibition in the capital of the North enriches its content, said one of the curators, Gridthiya Gaweewong. "The distance means the artists can speak freely," she said. "It's also a comparative study on the history of the South and the North of Thailand."
"Patani Semasa" (or contemporary Patani) is on show at MAIIAM Museum, which has become a popular destination for Chiang Mai visitors since its opening last June, until February next year.
We will have a full report on the exhibition next week.
