The Fourth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

MONTIEN BOONMA - BETWEEN THE TEMPLE AND THE TEMPORAL The enthusiasm with which installation-based art has been taken up as a favoured means of expression for many contemporary South-East Asian artists has frequently been attributed to the impact of European and American aesthetic practices. Certainly, many of the Thai artists who have gained international reputations in the field and are credited with its introduction to Thailand spent a significant period of their careers living and studying in Europe or the United States. Another convincing explanation, however, has been proffered by those who have detected a more local origin to the popularity of installation art in South-East Asia citing the traditional festivals, observances and monuments of the region as definitive seminal influences. These need not necessarily be viewed as mutually exclusive propositions, for the reality probably lies somewhere between the two. Current South-East Asian installation practice could perhaps be more accurately perceived as a hybrid art form that represents a continuation of the highly pragmatic and dynamic approach to cultural assimilation and adaptation that has long characterised South-East Asian societies, albeit one now writ large on a global rather than local scale. Historically, this long process of inter- and intra-regional acculturation has never equated to a wholesale or passive importation of ideas and practices from India, China and other polities within the region. Rather, South-East Asian cultural forms have evolved over the last two millennia through an absorption of influences, prudently selective in their adoption and liberal in their adaptation, which, when brought into contact with existing beliefs and practices, were transformed to suit specific and often unique local needs and imperatives. 1 Left: Wall detail, Phra Mondop, Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand Centre: Sandstone wall, east entrance pavilion, Prasat Muang Tam, Buriram, Thailand Right: Brick screen, Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Ayutthaya, Thailand Photographs: Michael Freeman 38 APT2002 Arokhayasala: Temple of the mind 1996 Steel, aluminium and herbs 370 x 250 x 250cm Collection : Acacia Fine Art Limited, Bangkok But while the rise of installation art in Thailand has been achieved through a highly effective synergism, not all external influences have been so seamlessly incorporated into existing traditional structures. Over the past few decades Thai culture has undergone considerable social upheaval, with an accelerated rate of political and economic transformation resulting in a distancing from and dissonance with once comfortingly familiar systems of belief and value. This has been a period in which traditional values and ways of life have been fast disappearing, and the possibility of a severance in the metonymical relationship between Thai identity and participation in religious life and adherence to the Buddhist precepts has increasingly become a cause for anxiety. In the face of the collapse of many long-held assumptions regarding culture and identity, a number ofThai artists have turned to the reassurance of traditional media, motifs and forms. Montien Boonma Thailand 1953-2000 Salas for the mind 1995 Steel, graphite Four units: 270 x 100 x 100cm each Collection: Estate of Montien Boonma, Bangkok