1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

Montien Boonma and Adool Booncham to recreate local narratives and symbols with yet another kind of 'Oriental essence'. But it is too neat to assume such Asiancentric position for the sake of alterity in presenting indigenously correct art with focus on locality and raw materials. In an attempt to get the grips with reality environmental and social artists such as Kamol Phoasavasdi and Vasan Sitthiket take on issues of destruction of nature and sickness in society. Kamol's pessimistic message seen in his site-specific installations reflect alarming signs of the entropic society he lives in. Vasan's angst- filled paintings jolt the viewers with subjects from a masturbating monk to parents selling their daughters to brothels. However, social criticism such as these tend to get deflected in context of consensus art as these artists are conveniently shunned to be on the margins of Thai art scene. The difference in standard of cultural identity reflects the contention between inward-looking to local history and determining power of exogenous forces. Within the schizophrenic vision of nationalism the problem of woman becomes repressed as the weaker sex remains ghettoized within its specific and regional space. When the question of women becomes the issues of international embarassment child prostitution and sex industry reveal the politics of othering where women remain the ones who are suppressed and exploited. In the phallocentric order of male bonding--networks 7