Sound art guide to Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB) 2018
Guest feature by sound artist Lisa Hall.
Bangkok’s first Art Biennale is a huge exhibition with over 200 works across 20 locations. Works are by international and Thai artists, curated by artistic director Prof.Dr. Apinan Poshyananda. Closing on 3 Feb, it's the final chance to visit!
The theme, “beyond bliss”, is a refreshing call to think beyond our notions of happiness, to instead a state of something in-between bliss and sorrow that Prof. Poshyananda believes will be more fulfilling and sustainable. He hopes that in this endeavour “we may find ways and paths that guide us to our own pursuits in life” and although it may be difficult to attain this form of ultimate happiness, his request to “at least let us try” is a very moving premise for this show.
Although none of the artworks are particularly termed as “sound art” works, there are two sound installations and a number of video and performance based works that have an interesting focus on, or use of, sound. Here’s a quick guide to some sound based works in this years BAB:
Performance (video installation)
This video work captures a performance of an invocation of ancestral presence - a Samoan ceremony to clean and care for the bones of the ancestors. While the title sets the context for this piece, referencing the Taualuga, a Samoan dance performed to both affirm Samoan resilience and lament the losses encountered in its colonial history.
The artist performs this ceremony dancing slowly against a white wall wearing a long dark dress. Although alone she is accompanied by many trace presences, which perhaps represent her ancestors - her shadow dancing in sharp spotlight contrast on the wall behind her, and 30 or so voices singing. These voices presumably come from the past, as the recording sounds as if it could be a field recording of a Taualuga. This may be a recording that the artist has access to from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, who hold a photographic archive, that she had responded to. The recording sounds as if it’s captured outside, comprised of 30 or so bodies, clapping, stamping and singing a two part melody, while calling out and playing percussive instruments. And while the song builds optimistically, almost generating a positive uplift with every carefully delivered verse, the artist has choreographed a mournful and almost resigned dance to perform: The last dance.
And after leaving the installation the sound continues to follows you around the galley - snippets of its uplifting song continuing to catch you.
This video is silent, and its in the not-hearing that it opens a new perspective on what your seeing. Close up footage shows hands quickly clicking at a computer mouse. These hands belong to 'addicted’ teenagers playing computer games - all of whom are being treated at an addiction clinic. By removing the 'clicks’ the artist gently reframes these movements in silence, as a frenzied twitching or compulsive tick, rather than the gestures of a game player. Whether or not these teens really are addicted and need therapy, it's a perspective that's nicely conveyed by simply omitting the sound.
His second video work depicts a fake world of Nazi soldiers, still living and fighting on an island. It looks as if it could be a live role play game documented by rough, blurry camera work. This piece does have sound and it's a very effective component in the piece. The soundtrack helps to validate this on-screen world as ‘real’, presumably to play with the boundaries between a game world and reality. While the work also references real life situations where isolated pockets of fighters have continued long past the end of a war. The soundtrack is of scuffles, of feet shuffling, the banging of guns and water bottles, the wind across the microphone, clothes rustling, stones and gravel underfoot - all of the little sounds of being present, that often go ignored. It makes for an understated soundtrack, but one that keeps the audience very present in this on-screen world, adding perfectly to the artifice and confusion.
Performance, video, sound installation, prints
This is a large body of work, exploring Snow White; her appearance as a ‘physical performance of happiness’, and the experience beneath the surface, of the workers from the Philippines who wear the costumes at Disneyland Hong Kong.
The sound installation is on a mezzanine level, and it has quite an impact as you ascend. Two Snow White dummies are dismembered and lying in heaps at either end of the floor, both roughly painted to have darker skin, each emitting sounds. One has speaker grill holes drilled into it’s chest, the other listens to a speaker within a pillow under its head. The sounds are vocal and guttural - hyperventilating, crying, laughing, singing, reciting lines about shame, trauma and fear, hinting at a darker experience below the costumes for these workers.
The other works in the installation explore the movements of Snow White, or the ‘physical performance of happiness and joy’ as the artist terms it. Although these works focus on movement, some also include the non-verbal sounds of this happiness and joy too. The works include; video documentation that follows a fleet of Snow Whites performing through a city; a video showing two dancers rehearsing the movements in a living room; and a performance of two Snow Whites dancing their ‘happiness’ to a gallery audience. All of these video works excellently capture this outrageous representation of femininity - of floating, gliding movements, sighs and swoons. These video works very simply reframe Snow White within in a day-to-day environment, neatly exposing this excessive representation of a ‘feminine’ happiness.
Image: Bangkok Art Biennale
Lastly, the following artwork which I unfortunately didn’t manage to visit, should definitely be on a your sound art list. Arnont is the only artist in the Biennale who states that they make specific “sound art” work!
LED lights, vibrating camera, and projector
This installation “combines sound, light and moving images to reflect 'Chat', the meaning life, incarnation ornation and 'Naa' the meaning of next, future or to come. The playful title insinuates the condition or state of Thailand in a process of transition full of potential and yet fragile and unpredictable. The hum of sound and dizzying light at the dark corridor of Sermon Hall, Wat Prayoon offer eerie feeling of what is to come in next life.”
And this is a just a small snippet of the works on show at the Biennale - there’s much much more to explore across their 20 different locations. They’ve selected an interesting range of venues too - from dated shopping malls to hotel gardens, abandoned buildings and temples …. So it’s a great way to visit new parts of the city too.
For full details about BAB visit http://www.bkkartbiennale.com
The website makes it a little tricky to read about specific artworks and then find which venue they are in - I found it easiest to download the PDF guide: http://www.bkkartbiennale.com/bab-guidebook/
Lisa Hall is a London based sound artist exploring urban environments using audio interventions and performative actions. Interrupting behaviour and questioning design, these works aim to make space for something new.
