20 January 2023

copied

An article by Phaptawan Suwannakudt on www.nationalgallery.sg

Excerpt from an article by Phaptawan Suwannkudt , please read the full article here

 

"I first started working on the group painting for the project Leave it and Break no Hearts⁴ (2022) in late 2019, after I came back from my mother’s funeral. I also later completed an installation work The Water had reached the Plateau in 2022, for the same project; the pandemic had started in early 2020, and the exhibition for Leave it and Break no Hearts had to be postponed till 2020, giving me time to develop another work. My works Sleeping Deep Beauty (2021), which showed at ESOK, Jakarta Biennale at the STOVIA Museum of History of National Awakening, Indonesia (2021), and RE al-(re)-g(l)ory, which was featured in the exhibition The National: New Australian Art (2021), at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2021), were developed during this time.

The first statue of Ya Mo was raised at the centre of the Korat city in 1934, and has been used as the basis for myths and oral tales of magic and wonder. It is believed that a non-native Korat who went under the Chumpon Arch would end up either marrying a native Korat—this person would then stay on in Korat—or take one away through marriage, based on whether one turned towards or away from Ya Mo. It was unknown when these beliefs started gaining traction; today, they continue to attract visitors—mainly men—hoping to get lucky by going through the Arch daily. Additionally, the vocabulary surrounding this monument and its narratives apparently includes the gender-specific word used to address men..."

 

Courtesy of artist and nationalgallery.sg