In early August 2023, CIRCUIT travelled to Bangkok to present an expanded programme of our artist cinema commission programme Legacies.
Curated in collaboration with May Adadol Ingawanij, CIRCUIT, FAFSWAG Arts Collective and Storage Art Space, LEGACIES | ROUTES was billed as a programme of "moving image artists connected with the Pacific Islands and with Southeast Asia whose practices embrace a multiplicity of inheritances and de-centered ways of world-faring."
LEGACIES | ROUTES brought artists Martin Sagadin, Pati Tyrell and Tanu Gago to Bangkok, as well as CIRCUIT Director Mark Williams. Featuring an exhibition and four screenings, the event was accompanied by extensive discussion, not only of the films from Aotearoa, but also current issues in Thai art and society.
Below are a series of images from LEGACIES | ROUTES, including the public events and our encounters with Thai art and culture.
CIRCUIT would like to thank May Adadol Ingawanij, Mary Pansanga and all the team at Storage Art Space for their wonderful hospitality, unflagging activism and support; the New Zealand Embassy in Thailand; and everyone who participated in LEGACIES | ROUTES.
Ngā mihi nui ki a koe and ขอบคุณมาก!
LEGACIES | ROUTES began with a performance by Pati Tyrell, who performed his work Fa'aafa in the humid Bangkok heat at Storage Art Space. Still from a video by Mary Pansanga.
The venue for the Legacies exhibition and many of the surrounding events was Storage, "an artist-initiated space in Bangkok that aims to provide a platform for both local and international artists, and expose the city's art communities to a broader spectrum of artistic practices and concepts." While the films showed in the air-conditioned space next door, guests were welcomed into the gallery. The Storage Art Space programme is overseen by independent curator Mary Pansanga together with artist and curator Sathit Sattarasart. Photo by Mary Pansanga.
Installation view of Edith Amituanai, Epifania (2023), Storage Art Space, Bangkok, 2023. Photo by Atelier 247.
Showing the Legacies commissions in Bangkok allowed us to finally meet the fifth artist in the programme, Ukrit Sa-nguanhai (holding microphone). Ukrit's film Trip After (2022) examines the colonial legacy of cinema in South East Asia. Here Ukrit is in conversation with curator Erin Gleeson and Martin Sagadin. Photo by CIRCUIT.
Martin Sagadin and partner Cookie Martin were able to stop in Bangkok en route to Europe, so we arranged a screening of Martin's film The Short Trilogy of Peace (2016). Knowing Martin's extensive background in making music videos, we asked them to nominate a video to warm up the crowd, and they chose the video for Richard Dada's Pink Flamingos (2018). Photo by Mary Pansanga.
"I wanted it to have a voice, I wanted it to have an expression." Martin Sagadin in conversation with May Adadol Ingawanij after the screening of their film The Short Trilogy Of Peace (2016). Photo by Mary Pansanga.
At a former piano shop in Bangkok, we were given a preview of an exhibition by Dusadee Huntrakul and Tae Parvit, an off-site project supported by Bangkok CityCity Gallery. Dusadee led us up all four floors, where the artists had installed sculpture, video, sound works and more. During the installation there had been a power cut, so we had to view the show by torchlight. The heat inside the building was hotter than the streets outside. Photo by CIRCUIT.
A workshop with tie-dyeing fashion house Philip Huang and our wonderful host Chomwan Weeraworawit Huang. Here, Mark and May prepare t-shirts to dip into the natural indigo dye. As well as their boutique commercial activities, fashion house Philip Huang created a series of tie-dyed designs inspired by the 2021 film Memoria by Thai artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Photo by Erin Gleeson.
May immersing t-shirts into the Indigo 'mother' at a tie-dyeing workshop with the team at Philip Huang. Photo by Erin Gleeson.
After several rounds of dyeing and washing a formerly white t-shirt, Mark holds up the results. Photo by Erin Gleeson.
Pati Tyrell, Tanat Teeradakorn and Erin Gleeson discuss Tanat's powerhouse installation at Bangkok CityCity Gallery, entitled Chaos Mandala National Coloration. Accompanied by a constant soundtrack of harsh noise, the show featured brutalist metal sculptures, fevered collages, smoke, and elevated viewing platforms covered in blood red hues. Photo by Mary Pansanga.
Installation view of Tanat Teeradakorn's Chaos Mandala National Coloration Complex (2023) at Bangkok CityCity Gallery. The strident slogans of the stairs ushered us into a visceral evocation of power, dread and refusal. Photo by CIRCUIT.
Playing checkers at the opening of Udomsak Krisanamis' exhibition All Is Prettier at 100 Tonson Foundation. The opening night band was the free noise group 'Stylish Nonsense,' also led by Udomsak Krisanamis (not pictured). The show was curated by Chomwan Weeraworawit, who also led the Philip Huang tie dyeing workshop. Bangkok—small city! Photo by Mary Pansanga.
At Doc Club & Pub, we screened RETURNS, a collection of recent work by Leala Faleseuga, Sorawit Songsataya, Phil Dadson, Jamie Berry, Christopher Ulutupu, and Keri-Mei Zagrobelna, exploring the eternal timelines of people, place and materials. Both Leala and Sorawit's work's addressed the intangibility of images, Phil's work paid homage to the Silk Road, Jamie and Keri-Mei explored whakapapa and deep time, while Chris' work showed a group of travellers arriving (or returning?) at an unknown destination. Photo by Mary Pansanga.
At the Doc Club & Pub cinema, FAFSWAG members Pati Tyrell and Tanu Gago screened DIASPORA RENDERED, a compilation of video works "exploring the experience of cultural displacement ... trying to unpack the term ‘Pacific Diaspora,’ what it means to live in our current time with bodies and identities that have navigated centuries of displacement both geographically and temporally." Left to right: May Adadol Ingawanij, Pati Tyrell, Tanu Gago. Photo by Mary Pansanga.
A visit to Bangkok artist-run space Speedy Grandma, which also houses the 'inappropriate BOOK CLUB' upstairs. Much talk focused on the need in the art world to maintain independence from structures of power and undue influence. Photo by Mary Pansanga.
A final dinner with the community from Storage Art Space and friends. Ngā mihi andจนกว่าเราจะพบกันอีกครั้ง! Photo by Mary Pansanga.
