Bangkok-based artist Nakrob Moonmanas presents new and recent work during "Metamorphosis In Gold", which is running at Warin Lab Contemporary until July 10.
Held with the support by the British Council, Thai Film Archive and the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, Ministry of Culture, the exhibition brings together video, sculpture, garments, objects and collage to examine the contested processes through which modernity was considered, applied and subverted in the Thailand during the reign of King Rama V.
Drawing on historical documents and artefacts, classical performance traditions and the artist's distinctive visual language, the exhibition investigates the complex legacy of civilisation as it transformed peoples and identities, and the profound and far-reaching consequences that followed in its wake.
At the centre of the show is a video work in which Nakrob stages a key scene from the classical Thai dance drama Sang Thong -- a masked prince courts the Princess Rojana, who alone has the capacity to see through his disguise and recognise his true identity.
In his telling, this moment of recognition is suspended -- the garland unthrown, the outcome uncertain, reconciliation postponed. Surrounding the video are the material residues of a historical civilising project -- garments, furnishings and objects that together constitute the apparel of an irreversible transformation.
A series of collages extends this investigation into the archive, opening the historical record to speculation and collapsing past and present into a single unresolved moment.
The exhibition refuses simple narratives of imposition or loss. At once archival and speculative, it asks what forms of identity, agency and belonging can emerge entwined from within the heavy guise of becoming.
Warin Lab Contemporary is located at OP Garden, Charoen Krung 36, and opens Tuesday to Saturday from 10.30am to 7.30pm.
Visit warinlab.com.
