1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

imaginations of national subjects thereby going through procedures of self censorship. Infatuation with the ideological view of inner/true identity or Oriental/Thai essence that privilege the externality of the West, neo-Buddhist art takes the form of strategic reaction formation. To attack is the best form of defense. Ultra- conservative artists such as Chalermchai Kositpipat and Tawan Duchanee are self-acclaimed local defender's of quasi-nationalist sentiment denying multifarious forms of artistic possibilities for the sake of hegemonic role as protagonists of Thai art and identity. Nationalist-Buddhist art as a mode of narration and yearning for the lost past sadly fails to represent reality due to its duplicity. However, it creates reassurance like a soft pillow or the mother's milky bosom that through these fictional dreamy paths somehow Buddhist devouts will be saved from Western- dominated, capitalist system. Ironically, images related to the Noble Eightfold Paths and Buddhist mindfulness against materialistic world are selling like hot sateh. They have become collectable pieces to be bought and sold in an expanding cosumer culture. Several artists who are less commercialized express their links with the spirituality through indigenous raw materials. The desire to escape the entropic cultural decay has urged artists like 6