A ROOM, WHERE THEY ARE COEVALs [PRECISE AT A DIG SITE DOOR] (2021)

︎︎︎poster

A ROOM, WHERE THEY ARE COEVALS
[PRECISE AT A DIG SITE DOOR]
/18.09–31.10.2021
BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLER
/June 16–19, 2021
Art Basel 'OVR: Portals'

"If knowledge is a freeform that orbits and constellates different thresholds and physicalities with varied scales and proportions, then I wish to catch and compare them. It has been a long time since the door between the two Guardian Lions has been left ajar – yet I shall not venture in, at least not until I receive my advice/device or a condition that makes it so. More than attitude alone, is the attitude that recalls the spirit of Nico Robin. Along the path of these ancient lions that Nico Robin has traversed, how many Threshold Barriers has she passed that will appear on the journey towards COEVAL? The valuable thing here is the attitude possessed in the act of archaeology, in this room where all are COEVAL."

︎︎︎ https://bangkokcitycity.com/viewing-room/a-room-where-they-are-coevals/ [ password: Bangkokcity2 ]

︎︎︎
Speculate the Measurement, 2021
Giclée print on archival paper 57.24 x 96 cm /Courtesy of the Artist and BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY

Speculate the Measurement is a digital print capturing a view within Nawin Nuthong’s COEVAL room. Taking center stage within this room, a tape measure with its blade fully extended and con- torted into a seem- ingly tangled mess, is frozen in a moment as

it attempts to quantify the size of an invisible object that is ever-changing. Here, the humble tape measure — a ubiquitous tool across job sites, homes, and exhibition spaces too – is re-imagined by Nuthong as the monolithic embodiment of scale and measurement,

a key subject of examination within the exhibition. Just as how the tool struggles
to provide a coherent reading of the thing
it seeks to measure; the artist reveals the collapse of the ability to utilize basic units of

Speculate the Measurement is a digital print capturing a view within Nawin Nuthong’s COEVAL room. Taking center stage within this room, a tape measure with its blade fully extended and con- torted into a seem- ingly tangled mess, is frozen in a moment as

As our knowledge of the world becomes increasingly defined through our interactions with digital content, and our experiences mediated by technology, the work speaks directly to the erosion of a sense of scale — a phenomenon arising from the gradual conceptual uncoupling of the represented object and the actual object itself. Since basic units of measurement such as the centimeter have served as a fundamental basis for ascertaining the sizes of things for the larger part of the past 100 years, and therefore serving as an integral property we also recognize objects by the arbitrary scaling of their representations across a large variety of media has culminated in an increasing redundancy of this property as a means of object recognition. Such a re- velation leads to necessary implications on conceptions of distance and space as well.

In this respect, the tangled tape measure becomes symbolic of the impending

︎︎︎
Thai Ancient Guardian and the Archaeologist of West Blue ,2021
Found objects
42x17x17cm , 42x17x17cm ,13x6x4cm
/Courtesy of the Artist and BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY

Thai Ancient Guardian and the Archaeologist of West Blue depicts an implausible en- counter occurring in one of the many portals in THE IMMORTALS ARE QUITE BUSY THESE DAYS (2021) exhibi- tion at BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY.

The found object installation is the recrea- tion of a scene in which Nawin Nuthong imagines Nico Robin — the bold archaeo- logist character from Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga — encountering two stone guardian statues — which originally accom- panied a Sagat figurine from the Street Fighter arcade game series. Bringing them together in a fashion not dissimilar to comic book and computer game crossovers, Nuthong constructs a micro-narrative highlighting the embeddedness of history in contemporary pop culture, while drawing attention to issues of cultural appropriation and “ancientness”. The stone guardian statues make a direct allusion to the final stage in the original Street Fighter game where players are expected to face off against the boss anta- gonist Sagat, on a map named ‘Thailand

— Stage 2’. Occurring against a backdrop of traditional Thai architectural motifs that include the guardian statues, the rendering of ‘Thailand’ in such a manner sought to play up to expected stereotypes of exotic- ness. While the guardian statues utilized for the installation only came up to the height of the accompanying Sagat figurine’s knees, Nuthong’s introduction of a child Nico Robin into the ensemble reconfigures their pro- portions to become larger than life. As a consequence, this re-scaling further recontextualizes their significance from that of an emblematic prop for Thai-ness, to become envisioned as archaeological heir- looms instead.

In highlighting and prompting a recognition of the cultural significance of these guardian statues, Nawin Nuthong simultaneously underscores the prevailing lack of cross- cultural understanding that persists in a closely interconnected and globalized world. Moreover, even as ancient artifacts and iconography may endure in contemporary times, an understanding of their symbolic value has already entered the realm of the esoteric.