Remnants of Fading Shadows

Remnants of Fading Shadows, a retrospective exhibition of installations and video works by Wantanee Siripattananuntakul, opened at Silpakorn University Art Centre in Bangkok on 19th June, and runs until 31st August. It includes The Web of Time, which was previously shown at the Bangkok Art Biennale (บางกอก อาร์ต เบียนนาเล่) in 2022.

The exhibition also includes Freeze-TV, a 2015 video in which a speech by Prayut Chan-o-cha is played on a television placed next to the artist’s parrot, Beuys. The TV screen is covered with felt, though the sound of Prayut’s voice can be heard, and the piece was inspired by Felt TV (Felz-TV), a Fluxus performance by Joseph Beuys. (The parrot is named after the Fluxus artist.)

As the video progresses, the felt begins to peel away from the screen, partially revealing the news footage, and the parrot eventually breaks out of its cage and flies away, seemingly unable to bear the TV broadcast. Of course, the caged bird is a metaphor for the restrictions imposed by martial law. Tanwarin Sukkhapisit made the same point in her short film I’m Fine (สบายดีค่ะ), as she sat in a cage next to Democracy Monument.

Wantanee discussed the concept behind Freeze-TV in a 2023 interview with the Ground Control website. She explained that the video’s title came from the fact that TV was effectively frozen by the coup-makers: regular programming was suspended when the coup took place, and coup leaders always seize control of the airwaves, just as they take over the government. Although the video features Prayut’s voice, she noted that his name is not mentioned, so it represents the idea of a coup itself, rather than specifically referring to 2014, and therefore it could also represent a future Thai coup.