Pachara Piyasongsoot’s exhibition Anatomy of Silence (กายวิภาคของความเงียบ) is currently on show at the Artist+Run gallery in Bangkok. On the surface, Pachara’s paintings depict tranquil landscapes, though they also contain hidden meanings relating to Thailand’s violent political heritage. To use Dutch painter Armando’s term, they are ‘guilty landscapes’, silent witnesses to past traumas.
Pachara’s works are divided into two exhibitions: Nabua (นาบัว) and Sequence (ผลสืบเนื่อง). The paintings in the Nabua series, which were on show from 24th November to 7th December, feature incongruous objects situated in natural landscapes, such as a temple gate on the seashore. These works allude to Nabua’s legacy as a site of state-sanctioned anti-Communist purges.
Specifically, the gate refers to a local temple where Communists were detained in 1965. A slogan painted on the gate (No Happiness Other than Serenity) conceals the site's sinister legacy, and Pachara uses the slogan as the painting’s ironic title. (Apichatpong Weerasethakul's short film A Letter to Uncle Boonmee/จดหมายถงลงบญม also examines anti-Communist violence at Nabua.)
The Sequence series opened on 8th December, and runs until 20th December. The works in this exhibition allude to further acts of state violence and military dictatorship: the 6th October 1976 massacre and the 2006 coup.
What a Wonderful World: Parallel Side of the Red Gate (another deeply ironic title) is the most powerful painting in this series. It was inspired by the documentary The Two Brothers (สองพี่น้อง), about two men who were hanged by police from a gate in 1976 after campaigning against Thanom Kittikachorn’s return from exile. Pachara’s painting shows the view from the gate, representing the men’s last sight before their deaths.
Similarly, The Sun Is Gone but I Have a Light also shows the final viewpoint of a hanged man: that of a taxi driver who hanged himself in protest at the coup. The landscape has been obscured with white paint, rendering the image abstract and literally whitewashing the man’s martyrdom.
Another work also refers to a specific victim: Undergrowth with the Lovers features a portrait of Ampon Tangnoppakul, who died in jail while serving a twenty-year sentence for lèse-majesté. (Another Apichatpong connection: his film Cemetery of Splendour/รักที่ขอนแก่น features a journal entry—“ขอให้อากงได้ออกมา”—calling for Ampon’s release.)
The Anatomy of Silence catalogue, with essays by the artist and Thanavi Chotpradit, also includes some of Pachara’s earlier works, such as The Garden. This painting features the distinctive tree trunk from Neal Ulevich’s photograph of the 1976 massacre.
Pachara’s works are divided into two exhibitions: Nabua (นาบัว) and Sequence (ผลสืบเนื่อง). The paintings in the Nabua series, which were on show from 24th November to 7th December, feature incongruous objects situated in natural landscapes, such as a temple gate on the seashore. These works allude to Nabua’s legacy as a site of state-sanctioned anti-Communist purges.
Specifically, the gate refers to a local temple where Communists were detained in 1965. A slogan painted on the gate (No Happiness Other than Serenity) conceals the site's sinister legacy, and Pachara uses the slogan as the painting’s ironic title. (Apichatpong Weerasethakul's short film A Letter to Uncle Boonmee/จดหมายถงลงบญม also examines anti-Communist violence at Nabua.)
The Sequence series opened on 8th December, and runs until 20th December. The works in this exhibition allude to further acts of state violence and military dictatorship: the 6th October 1976 massacre and the 2006 coup.
What a Wonderful World: Parallel Side of the Red Gate (another deeply ironic title) is the most powerful painting in this series. It was inspired by the documentary The Two Brothers (สองพี่น้อง), about two men who were hanged by police from a gate in 1976 after campaigning against Thanom Kittikachorn’s return from exile. Pachara’s painting shows the view from the gate, representing the men’s last sight before their deaths.
Similarly, The Sun Is Gone but I Have a Light also shows the final viewpoint of a hanged man: that of a taxi driver who hanged himself in protest at the coup. The landscape has been obscured with white paint, rendering the image abstract and literally whitewashing the man’s martyrdom.
Another work also refers to a specific victim: Undergrowth with the Lovers features a portrait of Ampon Tangnoppakul, who died in jail while serving a twenty-year sentence for lèse-majesté. (Another Apichatpong connection: his film Cemetery of Splendour/รักที่ขอนแก่น features a journal entry—“ขอให้อากงได้ออกมา”—calling for Ampon’s release.)
The Anatomy of Silence catalogue, with essays by the artist and Thanavi Chotpradit, also includes some of Pachara’s earlier works, such as The Garden. This painting features the distinctive tree trunk from Neal Ulevich’s photograph of the 1976 massacre.
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