SINGAPORE — Because the early 2000s, Pratchaya Phinthong has forged doubt on the ethical hierarchy of our political and financial worth methods. Throughout his oeuvre, neatly arrayed Swedish Kroner literalize the wages (or value?) of Thai migrant berry pickers; pictures of empty, pinpricked lottery boards recall a starry evening sky; spoons made by burnishing the steel of untriggered explosives embody the wartime trauma of United States army innovations in Laos. No Patents on Concepts on the Singapore Artwork Museum is billed as a survey, although such a format is probably incongruous with Phinthong’s work. The artist’s sculptures and movies hardly ever really feel labored or overprescribed, and his concepts typically resurface; through the runtime of this survey, he opened a associated exhibition in Tokyo, and can observe with two extra this 12 months in Bangkok and Hong Kong. Such a follow could be steady and expansive, but in addition piecemeal and wanting. No Patents on Concepts, wherein his works coalesce into an atmosphere of kinds, is usually the previous, however a little bit of the latter.
One enters the exhibition in darkness, drawn to a rhythmic dance of sunshine within the again nook, emanating from a display screen that drops from the ceiling. As one walks nearer, the carpet flooring steadily slopes upward, and shards of shade crystallize into cash, in various currencies and denominations. Cross-hatched portraits of George Washington, Ho Chi Minh, Queen Elizabeth II, and Mao Zedong crowd the display screen, swarming previous and phasing by means of one another. “Undrift” (2024) takes activates the display screen with “Untitled (Singapore)” (2014), wherein a single Singaporean fighter jet seems parked within the blue skies above Udon Thani, Thailand. This work alludes to Singapore’s 2005 trade of seven fighter jets for rights to Thai airspace. Collectively, “Undrift” and “Untitled (Singapore)” intertwine cash and politics as a rumination on energy.
Set up view of Pratchaya Phinthong’s “Undrift” (2024) (picture courtesy Singapore Artwork Museum)
Although Phinthong refrains from direct critique, the juxtaposition of those two works throws our company into query. Politicians deliver nations to battle or independence, towards modernization or famine. Phinthong emphasizes their presence on our foreign money, reminding us how we transact underneath their visions of nationhood. What room is there for rivalry? Residents of Udon Thani expertise fixed noise air pollution, a sacrifice they weren’t consulted about, for the sake of“national security.” Certainly, there’s a unusual peace in sweltering Singapore, maybe afforded by its superior economic system and formidable army. Does relative peace merely complement the specter of destruction? What occurs when everybody desires to hold an enormous stick? Strolling by means of the exhibition, I puzzled if Phinthong’s observations may assist us perceive our worldwide far-right upheaval. Are his small transformations hopeful?
Within the aforementioned “Spoon” (2024–ongoing), Phinthong collaborates with the villagers of Ban Napia in Laos to create the titular objects out of steel from unexploded ordnances (UXOs), numbering round 200 so far, and scatter them randomly all through Singapore. The concept stems from a 2022 video work titled “Today will take care of tomorrow” (not included within the exhibition), wherein the artist movies UXOs embedded within the forest round a bombed Buddhist temple with an infrared digicam. The bushes have grown across the detritus, which perversely makes it tougher for unlawful loggers to chop them down. I’m an optimistic particular person, however the video’s thought that point heals all wounds, that these shining silver spoons may alleviate the violence of UXOs, verges on fantasy.
View of Pratchaya Phinthong, “Spoon” (2024) put in in Singapore (picture courtesy the artist)
The identical may very well be stated of “Nam Prik Zauquna” (2024) and “Suasana” (2015), works made with a neighborhood of widows in Pattani, Thailand who misplaced their spouses to ongoing rebel violence. The previous consists of barely misaligned strips of movie adhered to a sheet of plexiglass, casting shadows onto the wall; whereas a sublime work of Minimalism, the rationale is trite. Phinthong meant to doc the widows, however, realizing their ineffable struggling, invited them to show and destroy the movie as a substitute. He then laid down the strips with roughly the width of a burkha’s opening in between. Whereas Phinthong’s anguish and demotivation within the face of such tragedy is comprehensible, as an art work, “Suasana” dangers an overdramatic literalism.
“Sacrifice depth for breadth” (2023) is probably essentially the most open-ended, and thus generative, of the works within the exhibition. Leaned towards and curling out from the wall, it appears to be like like a carpet of earth, embedded with woodchips, insect wings, and different detritus. It suggests a topography, with darker paths suggesting need traces. Subsequent to the work is a small QR code that hyperlinks to a YouTube playlist of recordings of the within of a hornet’s nest. In Thailand, it’s good luck when hornets nest in your house. “Usually, people will slice a nest open to explore its insides,” Phinthong stated in an interview, “but that voyeuristic impulse feels destructive to me. Oftentimes, our desire to consume things leads to their demise.” The work accordingly takes the type of a bit of handmade paper made partly from an deserted hornet’s nest. Phinthong’s admiring exploration of the nest’s textures and internal construction is light and odd on the similar time.
Generally, nevertheless, Phinthong can count on an excessive amount of of his materials’s histories. Leaving the exhibition, one passes an inset vitrine housing a frayed shred of parachute material, glimmering at the hours of darkness. It as soon as belonged to a British prisoner of battle and is on mortgage from the Changi Chapel and Museum; maybe Phinthong is commenting on the autumn of Singapore in World Struggle II and its subsequent constructing of army would possibly, however the connection is unclear. Lingering with the fragment’s magnificence, I additionally oddly discovered myself wanting a “Spoon” for myself. I even requested the museum guard the place I may discover one, to no avail. However why did I need a piece of unexploded ordnance, anyway? As a result of it was now artwork (and never cheap artwork)? I felt responsible in fascinated by its worth, each creative and financial — an impact of Phinthong’s follow that’ll stick with you.
Element view of Pratchaya Phinthong, “Sacrifice depth for breadth” (2023) (picture courtesy the artist)
Set up view of Pratchaya Phinthong, “Sacrifice depth for breadth” (2023) (picture courtesy the artist)
Set up view of Pratchaya Phinthong, “Parachute cloth and shrapnel” (c. 1942–45) (picture courtesy Singapore Artwork Museum)
Set up view of Pratchaya Phinthong’s ‘Nam Prik Zauquna’ (2024) (picture courtesy Singapore Artwork Museum)
Pratchaya Phinthong: No Patents on Concepts continues on the Singapore Artwork Museum (39 Keppel Highway, #01-02 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore) by means of March 23.