Frame by frame, Mance Thompson ran a cloth across each of the artworks in his first international exhibition. Any trace of a fingerprint was wiped away and all 33 photographs were set in perfect alignment. It was a quiet but muggy Sunday, the sort of afternoon that brings out more mosquitoes than aficionados, but the artist’s enthusiasm was clear.
To those who did call in at Goja, a modern art gallery cum dive bar in Phra Khanong, Thompson explained the thrills and difficulties involved in capturing the images in the show, Hanabi. Taking decent photographs of fireworks is tricky enough, with less than a second to get the shot right, but Thompson also manipulates the focus, carefully shakes the camera or uses lenses with star-shaped apertures to create the effect he wants. One work, seen from across the room, is a deceptively simple composition that captures the burst of blue, green and red sparks in the air and the blurred blaze of their reflection in a lake; on closer inspection the ghost of Mount Fuji becomes evident in the background. Others make the explosions look like flowers, or electric shocks.
Thompson, who was born in Michigan but has called Japan home for the past 15 years, was justifiably excited about bringing his work to Bangkok. After confessing to have been a little surprised at Goja’s small size, he said the city’s cosmopolitan nature and smaller galleries provided more intimacy than Tokyo. However, it is one of many blink and you’ll miss them exhibitions that pop up in the city: it is being held for only 11 days and ends tomorrow.
Intimacy is one of the Bangkok art scene’s strengths. Because galleries and exhibitions tend to be smaller, there are greater chances to encounter the artist directly, be it Thompson adjusting frames at Goja or noticing Kathy MacLeod giving a personal tour of her show at WTF in Thong Lor on a weekday after work. Viewers and prospective buyers can develop a more personal connection with the artist and richer understanding of the artworks.
Character study: ‘Pissing Guys’ by Luong Trung at Artha Gallery, Charoen Krung Soi 36.
But these small galleries, and the clusters that have sprouted in Charoen Krung, Thong Lor and Phra Khanong, are operating in spite of several difficulties. There is a distinct lack of large galleries and no major international art exhibitions pass through Bangkok. If Renaissance works were on a world tour, they would bypass the country in favour of Singapore, Hong Kong or Australia. Who could host an exhibition of works by Andreas Gursky or Gerhard Richter? Who would have space for Ron Mueck’s mesmerising giant sculptures?
Where Singapore is determined to become Southeast Asia’s art hub, with investment in museums as well as fairs and competitions, and Hong Kong sails along, Bangkok’s market seems largely aimed at tourists. Over drinks, one expat art lover, a creative but amateur painter in his day who has a minor Picasso on one of his walls, could cite only the Chatuchak market and the Museum of Contemporary Art. The proliferation of small galleries came as a shock to him, as no doubt the galleries would be disheartened to hear such people are unaware of their existence.
They are out there, you just need to know where to look. The lack of tent-pole galleries and exhibitions that draw crowds by the thousands has allowed smaller independents to fill the gaps. H Gallery is only a short hike from Chong Nonsi BTS station and is currently home to State of the Ridiculous, which balances the provocative and the playful to interesting effect. Hof Art Space has recently opened in a new location right near the Phra Khanong BTS, and is set to expand with a residency and studio. It is currently showing Sarawut Yasamut’s engagingly distorted Connectivity in its upstairs gallery, while the more permanent collection features pop art pieces and work by Takashi Murakami. Artha gallery in Charoen Krung Soi 36, which opened nine months ago, is introducing Vietnamese artist Luong Trung and has featured internationally renowned Buon and Paitoon Jumee in previous shows.
The other difficulty is knowing when to go: exhibitions in Bangkok turn over very quickly, usually in about a month. Thompson’s exhibition was unusually brief, but MacLeod’s at WTF counts among the longer running at nearly two months.
Pascal Billieres, the owner of Artha Gallery in Charoen Krung, has been a collector for more than 30 years, spending most of his life in the European art scene. Having followed his wife’s work to Bangkok, and from travelling through Myanmar, Vietnam and China, he developed a love of contemporary Southeast Asian art. But he has noticed flaws in the way artists are promoted.
“Every gallery changes their exhibitions every month, and it’s no good — you have no time to promote the artist,” Billieres said. “A gallery is not a museum: it’s to promote an artist, to explain an artist and to make sales at the end of the day. Museums are there to expose them, which is a little bit different.
“I do the exhibitions for two months, and I want to do longer than that. I want to give time to the artists so they can be promoted in Bangkok. If you turn every month, the people come to your gallery just for fun, just to drink and that’s it. I’m not a ball, I’m a gallery. I did it, I’ve seen it in Paris, and what I got was drunk people.
“People do not buy a painting like they buy apples or vegetables or whatever. They have to think about it. They see it the first time, and they come back and come back again. If you change your exhibition every month, they have no chance to see the paintings again. So they will not buy, and they will say ‘OK, next one’ and ‘next one’ again and again.”
Artha has location in its favour. Not only are Atta, Modern and Serindia galleries nearby, it is close to the Mandarin Oriental and several other five-star hotels. This provides customers, and Billieres acknowledged that his business has survived because of tourists. “If that goes, for any reason, the tourism, I’m just dead. I believe that the Thai people do not buy a lot of art, for many reasons. And the expats do not buy much because they think they have time to do it, and they never do.”
Shooting stars: Thompson used a new Petzval lens for ‘Ruby’, above, and ‘Fly Away’.
Billieres was optimistic that the market would develop in time, that larger galleries would eventually appear and the sales would improve.
“It’s the chicken and the egg: if you want the big galleries you have to have a big market. Today you have no market, you have no big gallery. If you have no big gallery, you have no big market. So, chicken and egg. But it will come, it is coming, I can see that.”
Also improving, in Billieres’ view, was the art itself, with works that increasingly blend history and culture with a questioning of politics and the shape of society. He enjoyed the way Paitoon expressed modernity in Buddha-like faces, the character of Luong Trung’s street scenes, the totally abstract nature of Buon’s work.
“For me it’s absolutely new. You have the history and the culture mixing with modernity, and I like it. It’s absolutely different from what you can see in Europe, and for me that’s very, very interesting. I hope that the Asean artists will open up a little bit more — not abandoning the culture, but expressing something a little bit newer — and that would be perfect.” n
Onwards and upwards: ‘Where are they Staying’ by Tuksina Pipitkul at H Gallery Bangkok.
Making connections: ‘Computer Devil II’ by Sarawut Yasamut can be seen at Hof Art Space.
