The Ninth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

67 ARTISTS You lead me down, to the ocean (still) 2018 Installation comprising video (two-channel video, 12 minutes; two single‑channel videos, 6:20 and 3 minutes) and artist book / Installed dimensions variable / Courtesy: The artist and Nova Contemporary, Bangkok Born 1987, Korat, Thailand Lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand Tada Hengsapkul is a Romantic artist — he wants his art to generate feeling and believes that art can stimulate change. In his practice, Hengsapkul's mission is to expose recent aspects of Thai history, especially those about which information is tightly controlled by his government. Although his subject matter is often specific to Thailand, his work also strikes a chord in a world rife with censorship, where many people’s freedom of speech and expression is limited, including by violent means. Underwater images of Thai Army tanks provide the backdrop to Hengsapkul’s installation, You lead me down, to the ocean 2018. These tanks are remnants from the border dispute with Cambodia that erupted in 2008 in the region surrounding the Hindu–Buddhist temple Prasat Preah Vihear (or Prasat Khao Phra Wihan in Thai). 1 The artist filmed the decommissioned armaments in the sea off the coast of Narathiwat Province in the south of Thailand, where they were scrapped following the conflict. 2 The tanks now form an artificial reef; once death machines, they now support marine life. Hengsapkul has also created a book comprising archival material and the artist’s own photographs that primarily document the US military presence in Thailand since the US–Vietnam War — including in Hengsapkul’s hometown of Nakhon Ratchasima, commonly known as Korat — and other events, such as the aftermath of protests in Bangkok. These photographs provide evidence that disputes the government’s claim of the absence of violence during recent political upheavals within the concept of pursuing freedom of expression. The work has its origins in Hengsapkul’s ongoing interest in the unacknowledged military engagement around Korat. This was symbolised in his photographic series 'Invisible Colours' 2016, which depicted scars left on the city by US bombs dropped from nearby Thai bases. Perceiving a threat from Laos, the largest frontline US Air Force in Thailand operated from the Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base during 1962–75. Shown as part of an exhibition entitled ‘Under the Same Sky’, the series asserts Hengsapkul’s position that all people should be treated as equals, and he takes issue with his country’s support of violence. 3 You lead me down, to the ocean aims to induce empathy in the viewer, and Hengsapkul clearly intends for us to ‘feel something’. 4 He has employed a similar strategy in his other works, visually overwhelming audiences in order to encourage them to analyse what they see. Some of his earlier photographs explore this thread of vulnerability by showing young people — friends of the artist — exposed in a more documentary style. Subsequently, The Things That Take Us Apart 2016 depicted eight naked strangers brought together by the artist in an abandoned ballroom in Chiang Mai, revealing a range of individual behaviours as they responded to each other and their environment. Hengsapkul is familiar with environments that censor expression, and his works explore ways in which art can respond to power. His recent installation The Shards Would Shatter at Touch 2017 comprised a series of blackened pieces of cloth, each treated with thermochromic paint, which were positioned around the edges of the gallery space. Visitors could hold each piece to their chest, the heat from bodily contact exposing a portrait image of someone whose freedom has been suppressed, including activists, journalists, lawyers and academics. 5 You lead me down, to the ocean draws attention to a type of silencing by giving voice to those affected by conflict in Thailand. Tada Hengsapkul reminds us that feeling disenfranchised from democracy transcends borders, and that hope for the future will be enhanced by acknowledging others as well as understanding the past. Zara Stanhope Endnotes 1 The Preah Vihear Temple along the Thai and Cambodian border has been a site of contention between the two countries for the past 100 years. Preah Vihear’s origin dates to the ninth century, but the contemporary dispute is over a portion of land surrounding the temple measuring 4.6 square kilometres. 2 Hengsapkul found evidence that the tanks were unused when jettisoned, unfit for combat as their instruction panels were written in simplified Chinese. 3 ‘Under the Same Sky’, Nova Contemporary, Bangkok, 2016. 4 Tada Hengsapkul, artist proposal for APT9. 5 These portraits include Thai public intellectuals, such as human rights defender Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, history lecturer Somsak Jeamteerasakul, and magazine editor Somyot Pruksakasemsuk. TADA HENGSAPKUL