(Dis)continuity, 2012


(Dis)continuity" combines three bodies of work. 366 Days of Wantanee Siripattananuntakul, completed in 2000 (while the Y2K problem was an issue), is the first and the other two pieces recently developed in situ at The Art Center Chulalongkorn University.   A small and dark pathway was created between two rooms while the flashing light was installed to temporarily blind the audiences, thus allowing each individual to imagine what they will see next. The white atmosphere was installed in the final room with a 5-meter LED panel in the middle and a sensor to record the number of visitors and demonstrate the figure of 280,000 Thai bahts, the amount of money borrowed from the banks to produce this work.   . The purpose of this is to contemplate how much it costs per head for art appreciation. Given that the average number of visitors at The Art Center for any art exhibition is between 500-1,000, Wantanee discovers that she has to pay 500 baht or less for each visitor.  Such investment by the artist could be worth it while the public acknowledges the costs of art production and tries to figure out a way to help the artist in the future generation and her situation.

This work complicates the issues of situating herself in the context of urbanization as an artist, a university lecturer, and her own daily life. With the combination of life in such aspects, the boundary between past and future is unclear, yet what the future shall bring?   The way that the artist plays with capitalism by borrowing money for creating work reflects not only her life but also critiques the unfair structure of income in any developing country that makes no sense in a world of "reality."   Wantanee's representation of past, present and future are completely isolated in a different space and time, yet the three installations are interrelated in the context of the imagined place, the conceptualization of social reality, and even a suspended time.