Exhibition : Lang Baan

Lang Baan Poster from Facebook

During my 2 weeks school break in Thailand, I have chance to visit the “Lang Baan” or “The Sunset Backyard” exhibition, which located at Barely Human Gallery in Bangkok. This exhibition is a collective of 4 artists who came together to collaborate on a response to the first ever Bangkok Art Biennale in 2018. The pieces in this exhibition illustrate each artist’s perspective of the upcoming event. Since the Biennale festival will be hosted at 6 different locations across Bangkok , the collective set off on foot to do research will be around the 6 different areas.

The Bangkok Art Biennale 2018 Map

By investigating the Biennale’s physical space, the idea that these 6 locations are a metaphorical as “front yard” or “living space”. The artists explored not only the “front yard” but stepped into the metaphysical “back yard” which is largely hidden local communities surrounding the 6 sites (Barley Human Gallery Facebook, 2018).

The Art works from 4 Artists : Nattaporn & Valaree : Community Photographs, Araya : Canvas embroidery, Shotika : The unheard messages from communities.

The first artist Nattaporn, investigates the idea of living both as an obstruction and as a solution, Varalee presents the effortless beauty in these spaces through her portrayal of “Things” and body of portraiture titled “Memory of the backyard sunset”. Araya’s work presents the contrast form of living naturally in the everyday and the struggle to create a better life. And Shotika’s work explores the exchange of dialogue and sounds heard in the communities in the midst of a bustling metropolitan.

All the artists also collaborate in making a sculptural installation which manifested through the process of collecting discarded objects found in the communities. These objects which used to serve specific purposes have been reconstructed to evoke questions regarding their changing value and context.

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What I like about this exhibition is that you can see each artist’s perspectives towards the Bangkok's community they explored and interpret genuinely into their art pieces. The photographs from Varalee & Nattapon is my favourite since it resonates local Bangkokian living life. With its most spontaneous way without artificial.