Compact Knowledge

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Everything needs to be tiny in this era (even it's very difficult to remember). This is an article that "Not Even Pineapples" is included, about cats, fish pillows, salads, pineapples and Thasnai Sethaseree's works by Angkrit Ajchariyasophon.

It's very advantageous for everyone who can read Thai.

Salad Is Not a Thing

Thasnai Sethaseree's latest exhibition
Salad Is Not a Thing สลัดไม่ใช่อะไรอื่น
November 28 - December 22, 2009
Angkrit Gallery, Nanglae, ChiangRai, Thailand
angkritgallery.com

สลัด v. (ชื่อยำชนิดหนึ่งตามแบบชาวตะวันตก ซึ่งมีน้ำมันสลัดประสม) salad v. (ซัด ผละ หรือสะบัด โดยทำให้สั่นหรือกระพือให้แรงเพื่อให้สิ่งอื่นที่ติดอยู่หลุดไป) shake off, throw off, fling, toss away v. (โจรสลัด) pirate, buccaneer, corsair related. ดีด, สะบัด

“Salad” does not come out of one specific culture, but was a core food item dating back to ancient times. The contents of the salad would be dependent on what was available, seasonality, and trade routes of the day. What is all mixed together in a bowl of salad, a mixture of vegetable, fruits and some meats, signifies a concept of the integration of many different things and cultures.

“Salad” in Thai pronunciation has a couple of different phonemic meaning , 1) สะ-หลัด / salad {salad v.}; to shake off, throw off, fling, toss away, 2) โจรสลัด /jone-salad {pirate, buccaneer, bandit n.} To jumble “salad” in both English and Thai phoneme in one bowl without uniting their segmental units, it should imply ideas of flexibility, possibility, contingency, mixture, flux and flow, diversity, fusion, separation, juxtaposition, absurdity, absorbing, refusing, corrupting, outrage, illegal copying, scattering, struggling, revenge, freedom, crime, negation etc.

Moreover, it happens that this bowl of mixed languages’ phoneme reveals also ideas of political structure and its power relations embedded deeply in the opposite site – stiffness, impossibility, certainty, singularity, stillness, uniformity, disassociation, validity, reason, distracting, accepting, happiness, trustworthy, originality, monopoly, surrendering, sympathy, suppression, good deed, institution, etc.

If “salad” making can be considered as a culture of practices in some sort, these practices do not merge together into a single homogeneous culture. Rather, it connotes multiple juxtaposed layers of articles, and somehow of an idea of cultural pluralism. Within this space of practices, the physical entity of power over resources control becomes loose, and it allows the flow of heterogeneous sources of diversity of experiences in a new environment; as yet it consents to conflicts politically. Then choices of anything can be conceived of endless alternative. In this sense, “salad” is not a thing, but a simple survival tactic, serving cold people who are driven away from the center of power.

When objective properties of what so ever we call “a thing” do not really exist, it has no sense for a question to be asked about the “what” – it is better to seek for the “why” and “how”……of course you can go on asking what this show is all about.

Picasa photo album "Salad Is Not a Thing" Opening

Is Color A Nationality?

Are you RED?

Are you YELLOW?

Are you BLUE?

Thailand's national flag is RED WHITE BLUE
(traditionally mean nationality, religion and monarch).

Where is WHITE?

It's the question from a monk who is represented as white in the flag. He chucked it into the discussants and then the direction of discussion had jumped to the conclusion of nothingness.

Buddhism seems to be the way out of every problem, but why Thailand, which has 90% of population admire in Buddism cannot cease the political conflictions in nowadays?

Or religion is fading away from the mind of Thai people? That is the monk's final question.

Makeshift Slideshow

We're sorry, N.E.P. crews are in troubles. So, no story for now. Let's see photos of the discussion day at the press conference room of BACC. And I'll tell you later what happened in that day.

go to source ALBUM IN PICASA

Cultural Nationalism Discussion

and more photos of all mocked-up masterpieces in Imagined Museum.

go to source ALBUM IN PICASA

Mock-terpieces

A Night We Lost in a Museum

A man in a black t-shirt who's holding a walky talky is a BACC officer who led us move all art objects to an enormous elevator up to the second floor, but... he had just realized that the building he worked for months has no connection from elevators to the exhibition area.

Finally, someone found a door to the hall. We had to take all art objects through a narrow passage again.

Art Assaulting

Midnight, we, N.E.P. crews & Gallery VER, attacked BACC with our all mocked up art masterpieces and was co-operated by security guards.

Exclusive Truck

Gallery Ver is on the second floor of Klongsarn Plaza Building where the stairs is very narrow. We cut the Rodchenko's goat horn out.

Downstairs is Klongsarn Market. Every night, after it closed, it's filled with garbages. Tonight's special is rainwater in chuckholes as our obstruction to move all 38 art masterpieces to our exclusive truck.


Somewhere over the flyover, Thongyhod, Baitong, Ton & Thasnai stood in the tray of the truck to take care all expensive works (mock-up).

Not many time that we could stand in an unusual place like this. Thanks to Not Even Pineapples project and ART! that allow us to do what we cannot do in usual legal spaces.