{"id":7673,"date":"2017-11-16T12:24:41","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T05:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathmanduphotobkk.com\/?p=7673"},"modified":"2024-02-18T13:23:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T06:23:27","slug":"future-narrative-of-monuments-kata-sangkhae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathmanduphotobkk.com\/?p=7673","title":{"rendered":"Narrative of Monuments \/ Kata Sangkhae"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Kathmandu Photo Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n

proudly presents<\/p>\n

Project New Visions<\/em><\/strong> series 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Narrative of Monuments<\/strong><\/p>\n

by<\/p>\n

Kata Sangkhae<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

13 January \u2013 24 February 2018<\/p>\n

(Opening party on Sat 13 Jan at 6.30 \u2013 9.00 pm)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I<\/strong>n the Thai context of waiting for the return to democracy, Kata Sangkhae\u2019s photographs of the Democracy Monument may inspire hope or despair according to the viewer\u2019s interpretation. \u00a0Against the night sky, at times blurry and then in sharp focus but without detail definition, his non-naturalistic images of blinding light on the golden replica of the constitution upon its golden receptacle, and the monument\u2019s four wings in four directions, convey tall white shapes invocative of disembodied spirits.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Instead of writing a specialised academic treatise on the role and raison d\u2019etre of monuments as repository of collective memory, conceptual artist and doctor of philosophy Kata Sangkhae bravely communicates with the open-ended medium of photography. Amidst the packed metropolis that surrounds and drowns them, how do these monuments endure as important state artifact and device for instilling nationalism, in the new \u201cstooped-over Thai\u201d [Thai Gom Nha<\/em>] society\u00a0 in which every face is bent over a phone?<\/p>\n

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Not an exhibition of beautiful photographs to uphold and glorify history lessons and nation-building memories as nurtured by the ruling powers, \u2018Narrative of Monuments<\/em>\u2019 rather reflects the present faded state of those historical memories, represented here by the Democracy and Victory Monuments and King Taksin and King Rama I Memorials, among the artist\u2019s contemporaries.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

New Visions<\/em> <\/strong>curator Manit Sriwanichpoom<\/strong>: \u201cKata\u2019s clever use of over and under-exposure is taken to a courageous extreme. His choices of distance and perspective, uniquely his own, arouse complex emotions by their unpredictable point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kata Sangkhae <\/strong>(b. 1976), artist and lecturer at Bangkok University School of Fine Arts, received a PhD in philosophy from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia, in 2016. He has regularly exhibited since 2542; most of his work explores issues of nationalism and identity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

www.katasangkhae.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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