The group exhibition Affinities at Nova Contemporary in Bangkok closes today. The exhibition, which opened on 26th April, features twenty-eight artists, though the clear highlight is Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s video The Treachery of the Moon.
Araya filmed herself sitting on a bench with her pet dogs, watching a lakorn (soap opera) on TV. Just past the half-way point in the video, news footage of various episodes of Thai political violence — including the 2010 crackdown on the red-shirts, and the 2004 Tak Bai tragedy — are projected onto the artist and the TV screen behind her.
Araya filmed herself sitting on a bench with her pet dogs, watching a lakorn (soap opera) on TV. Just past the half-way point in the video, news footage of various episodes of Thai political violence — including the 2010 crackdown on the red-shirts, and the 2004 Tak Bai tragedy — are projected onto the artist and the TV screen behind her.
The cycle of political violence in Thailand is as long-running and as repetitive as a soap opera, a point also made in Sanchai Chotirosseranee’s short film The Love Culprit. Stills from The Treachery of the Moon were first published in the Storytellers of the Town exhibition catalogue.
