Thasnai Sethaseree’s Uncontainable Forms
Cold War: the mysterious at MAIIAM, Chiang Mai attempts to capture the felt plebeian texture of Thai political history
The dazzling giant in this display of over 60 collages by Chiang Mai-based artist and university lecturer Thasnai Sethaseree is not as spontaneous as it first appears. With each step closer, the billboard-size Cold War: the mysterious (2019–22) seems a little less indebted to the wild, improvisational gestures of action painting and a little more grounded in a particular time and place: the Cold War period in dictatorial Thailand. By the time you’ve reached the ‘do not cross’ line, layer upon layer of figurative elements – strips of shredded history books, comic book covers, the faces of political figures – can be seen floating amid a vast technicolour cosmos of blobs, orbs and scribbles.
A democracy activist and vocal firebrand in the Thai art scene, Sethaseree and his studio team layer thin strips of coloured paper over canvases thick with various materials, from Buddhist monk robes to digital prints, copper wire and dried rice paddy. This humble process is painstakingly deployed to achieve an ambitious end: capturing, through cacophonous blends of representational and non-representational elements, something of the felt plebeian texture of Thai political history. Within this context, Sethaseree’s biggest and most audacious show to date is a multi-chapter simulation of the obscurantism, violence and white noise of the Thai theatre-state since the Cold War – or more precisely, a multi-chapter simulation of the subjective, conscious experience of living under such alienating conditions.
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