The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10) Catalogue

Artists The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 150 (above and opposite) Collapsing Clouds Form Stars (stills) 2021 Single-channel video, black-and-white, sound, 16:9, 279 ribbons with embroidered text, ed. 1 of 3 (+2AP) / Purchased 2021 with funds from The Spellbrook Foundation through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / Images courtesy: The artist Som Supaparinya’s work over the past decade has been based in a consideration of the risks of human intervention in landscapes and cultures, in particular around the greater Mekong region. The artist has developed a unique form of video-making that blends documentary and experimental methods, commonly involving intensive on-site location filming. Supaparinya’s most recent project, Collapsing Clouds Form Stars 2021, premiering in APT10, pays homage to the brave ordinary people and politically threatened victims who have led resistance movements throughout Thai history. 1 The artist contemplates how, since the beginning of the twentieth century, these courageous figures have led the fight for democracy and justice in Thailand, and how this has informed today’s collective identity, as one generation draws on experiences of those previous to negotiate the conflicts of their times. As a starting point, the artist considers the dissolution of independent ruling colonies by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V, reigned 1868–1910) in 1899 through a centralising system known as Thesapiban . 2 Thus began the resistance of the people who fought to maintain their own identity, rule and justice. 3 The concept and form of the work has been developed around the idea of clusters of stars and the formation of clouds, to provide a metaphor for the gatherings and departures of peoples that shape places and histories. Central to this focus is the Isan region, which covers a large group of provinces in North-Eastern Thailand surrounded by Laos and Cambodia — and home to almost a third of Thailand’s population. This region, which shares cultural and linguistic commonalities with neighbouring Laos, has been a site of tension over the past century, including being identified by the government as a site of harbouring communist insurgents from the 1960s. 4 To create the work, Supaparinya travelled around Isan and other regions, researching and navigating often unassuming sites where conflicts and uprisings have occurred. Building a repository of time-lapse still images, she captures these sites in their present form, where any sign of past conflict has long been absent. Rather than narrating complete historical accounts, the locations become a poetic metaphor for human and political resistance and survival, captured through images that paint a deep and evocative picture of their sites. The artist evokes haunting memories of those involved in conflicts in these areas: The places and languages of the ‘fighters before’ represent the courage yet suffering of commoners who have continued to influence later generations and the united front. Their bravery and suffering will be remembered and delivered to the next generation even though they themselves were killed, abducted, jailed or [sought] asylum. A legacy left from fighting is the awareness of one's rights and freedoms in all dimensions. 5 The film is presented behind an installation of 279 indigo textile ribbons that form a curtain around the images. Across their lengths are stitched texts in English and Thai taken from poems, speeches, protest signs, lyrics, banned books, viral phrases and Twitter posts. Each relates to the current fight for democracy, justice and identity in Thailand and, similar to the film, features a medley of resistance sentiments, echoing historic tensions as they apply to contemporary contexts. The number of ribbons references section 279 of the constitution, which was altered under the authority of present-day King of Thailand, Maha Vajiralongkorn. To safeguard his royal powers, the King requested the amendment — which essentially gives permanent legal status to orders established by the military junta — shortly after he ascended the throne in 2017. 6 In Collapsing Clouds Form Stars , Supaparinya draws a connection between the influence of the spirit of rebellion in the past and the power struggles of today. The artist brings to attention plights written out of mainstream history and, in doing so, weaves together the complexity of peoples, cultures, ethnicities and beliefs that have shaped modern Thailand. Tarun Nagesh Endnotes 1 Som Supaparinya, artist statement, 2020. 2 The King’s brother, Prince Damrong, instituted this system, which consolidated power of tributary principalities into central Siam, based on European colonial systems operating in neighbouring Asian countries. Joshua Christopher Mika, Discriminating tastes: Editing Siam’s patrimony and the birth of the ‘National Library’, 1905–1925 , Masters thesis, University of Hawai’i, December 2012, p.35, <https:// scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/100847/Mika_ Joshua_r.pdf>, viewed June 2021. 3 Supaparinya. 4 Contestation over the Isan region commenced after French colonisation of neighbouring Laos in 1893. The region was largely ignored after democratic rule began and the country centralised operations in Bangkok in 1932, until conflict with communist groups in the broader region in the 1960s. 5 Supaparinya. 6 ‘Section 279 must go’, Bangkok Post , 13 December 2018, <https://www. bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1592906/section-279-must-go > viewed June 2021. Som Supaparinya Born 1973, Chiang Mai, Thailand Lives and works in Chiang Mai