Fusing sculpture, video, sound and graphic design, the exhibition explores the parallel histories of Thailand and the UK, from pop culture and politics through to national symbolism.
A tourist souvenir stand, overflowing with t-shirts, baseball caps, key chains, scarves, toys and umbrellas, occupies the first gallery. Stacked high, hanging and draping, each item is meticulously designed by Tanat, and draws inspiration from a series of protest and activist songs pivotal to Thailand’s history of resistance. These include For the Masses, a song emerging from the 1973 popular uprising, that played a key role in ending Thailand’s military dictatorship. Often throwaway, kitsch or disposable items, these objects are envisaged as trojan horses—containers that hold deeper stories and reflect the ways a nation’s identity can be packaged and exported through iconography.
Installed inside the stand is a new video and sound work that further explores the connections and convergences between Thailand and the UK. Using TikTok-style viral dance routines, which blend Thai folk traditions with modern trends, the work examines how cultural and viral marketing influence and reshape ideas of indoctrination. The accompanying soundtrack builds upon Tanat’s ongoing research into cross-cultural hybrid sounds and how sound can be a tool to control, inspire, and energise.
In the second gallery, a large-scale printed backdrop references traditional Thai Opera scenography, while large-scaled advertising lightboxes feature performers from the video wearing Tanat’s designed souvenir products. A large mirror inserts the viewer into the scene and might encourage a circular moment of promotion. These elements combine to highlight the tension and connections between commercialisation and culture.
Throughout history many efforts have been made to market Thailand internationally, and to attract a Western audience. Sceptical of these ongoing attempts to co-opt culture and history, in “National Opera Complex”, Tanat presents a hybridised Thailand, one that might be more representative of the country’s diverse and complex histories and ideologies.
at Gasworks, London
until March 30, 2025