SPECTROSYNTHESIS II - Exposure of Tolerance: LGBTQ in Southeast Asia
Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Thailand
November 2019 - March 2020
We are all individuals, and each of us unique. Each represents a different hue in society’s broad spectrum. Yet society influences us to overlook many of these gradations of difference, to be unwittingly blind to them or deliberately ignore them. Human beings are conditioned to stereotype and marginalize.
As for the diversity of sexual preference and gender identity, being different from the accepted norm usually results in a tension. This exhibition creates a dialogue around that tension, as voiced by dozens of artists from within Southeast Asia as well as from the transnational Indian and Chinese spheres of cultural influence and migration that have helped shape the region.
The artists’ lively discussion helps reveal what it means to grow up in society when your gender identity or preference is different from the norm. Many of them confront issues of human rights and equal justice. Some of them ask, why struggle to be “normal”, when you can celebrate being different? They discuss how boundaries are being shifted, social frameworks are being opened up, and established values are being questioned.
In Southeast Asia, the degree of tolerance varies from one place to another. But even where social acceptance is high, as it generally is here in Thailand’s capital, exclusionary practices and rules are commonplace. These often hidden biases await exposure. Yet today, a greater acceptance of diverse gender identities and preferences is emerging in Southeast Asia as in much of the world. This emergence of tolerance has to be viewed against the region’s unique mixtures of cultural and religious traditions. The protagonists in this show help us explore the social norms and frameworks of the cultures they grew up in.
Exposing the narrowness of societal norms can help us all envision alternative attitudes that are more inclusive and more respectful of difference. This should benefit everyone, since everyone is different in some way. The artistic dialogue here is specifically about tolerance and acceptance of sexual and gender diversity, but it is relevant to more than just the LGBTQ community. Broad-minded thinking serves everyone.
Loves Get Better with Time Quietly, 2019
Prologue / Documentary
2:00 / 22:22 mins
Prologue: In 1967, Pranote Wisetpat and Somchart Jindakaew committed suicide together by drinking from a bottle of poison in a pledge of their love. The couple was a trans woman and a man. At their funeral, their coffins were placed together in the same pavilion at Wat Hua Lamphong, a Buddhist temple in Bangkok. In the Prologue section of Sudaporn Teja's Loves Get Better with Time Quietly, the recited poetry is excerpts from King Rama VI's translation of William Shakespeare's tragedy, Romeo and Juliet.
Documentary: Sudaporn Teja created Loves Get Better with Time Quietly in remembrance of her close friend James, whose untimely death lead her to re-explore the boundaries of love and gender. This work is intended as a celebration of gender diversity and individuality.
Moth, 2018
Oil, acrylic, taxidermied moth on canvas
180 cm in diameter
Like moths at night enjoying the limelight, trans women illuminate the night with their beauty and mystique. The showbiz life enables many trans women to be embraced by society, and night time is when their self-expression blooms.
Study for Self-Actualisation I–IV, 2018
Oil, acrylic, charcoal, estrogen steroid hormone & breast reduction gel on linen
15 × 15 cm (4 pieces)
Sudaporn Teja painted Study for Self-Actualisation I–IV using the hormone taken by trans women and the breast reduction gel taken by trans men. The series is a study of the determination and the will of these people to transform their physical appearance to match their true gender identity.
Juliet & Romeo, 2017
Oil, acrylic, charcoal on canvas
90 × 140 cm
Sudaporn Teja's painting Juliet & Romeo was inspired by the real-life tragedy of a trans woman and a man who chose to end their life together by drinking poison from the same bottle. Pranote Wisetpat and Somchart Jindakaew were cremated together as a couple at Bangkok's Hualamphong Temple in 1967.
‘SPECTROSYNTHESIS II’ at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre
by Ho See Wah
Spectrosynthesis II, the largest-ever survey of
LGBTQ art in Southeast Asia
สนทนาสัปตสนธิ: นิทรรศการศิลปะร่วมสมัย สะท้อนสังคม LGBTQ ที่ใหญ่ที่สุดในอาเซียน โดย สิงหนาท นาคพงศ์พันธุ์
สนทนาสัปตสนธิ: สังคมที่เราอยู่เปิดรับตัวตนและเพศวิถีของ LGBTQ แค่ไหน
โดย Chanakarn
See a Kaleidoscopic Array of Works on View in Southeast Asia’s
Largest-Ever Exhibition of LGBTQ Art by Katie White
「Spectrosynthesis Ⅱ」@BACC（Bangkok）LGBTQは、セクシュアリティのシンボルのレインボーにしてローカルの華である。
ไตร่-ถามความเควียร์ ที่ไม่ได้มีดีแค่ ‘แปลก’ ในนิทรรศการ LGBTQ+ ที่ใหญ่ที่สุดในเอเชีย โดย พัฒนพงศ์ มณเฑียร
Spectrosynthesis II – Exposure of Tolerance: LGBTQ in SEA
โดย ชานันท์ ยอดหงษ์