Gallery VER

The Tenebrous Spiral Staircase of the —

by Chitti Kasemkitvatana 

11/07 – 28/08/2021

*Due to the new wave of COVID 19 pandemic, the onsite exhibition is  postponed until further notice*

The path may be dark but an archangel is on hand to guide visitors through Chitti Kasemkitvatana’s new solo exhibition, The Tenebrous Spiral Staircase of the — at Gallery VER. Kasemkitvatana’s latest show juxtaposes recent events in Thailand’s social-political landscape against a backdrop of Siam’s modernisation, overseen by a forgotten contemporary-art duo from the 1980s and the archangel Cassiel from Wim Wenders’ Faraway, So Close! (1993). These are the characters on a stage on which items operate as devices to trigger each viewer’s own internal play.

The exhibition transforms its audience into “directors” as they move from white cube to green-screen room, Cassiel ever-present as a guide on this dark and precarious staircase. Entering the gallery, audiences are invited to interpret a variety of objects. A canvas depicting a collapsed pictorial plane sits beside a sign in Ariyaka alphabet – the centrepieces in dialogue in the main gallery. Off in one corner, veiny river routes flow chemical blue to reveal fragments of things past. Walking through a door, viewers are confronted with the emptiness of material culture, an homage to an artwork featured in Korean drama Vincenzo. In a small room, wax figures of the forgotten artist-duo await to jog your memory. As suggested by its title, The Tenebrous Spiral of Staircase of — is an open-ended space for viewers to conjure meanings based on their own experience and background. The interpretation is entirely up to you. 

Kasemkitvatana has also created an online tour of the “staircase”. Viewers can step into the virtual gallery of photos, moving images and journals by clicking instagram.com/journal_spiralstaircase. The online platform follows his Instagram project titled encrypted/decrypted, a platform for artists to reflect on Bangkok’s paralysis under Covid-19 through still and moving images set to Spotify playlists.

Kasemkitvatana’s artistic practice combines his familiarity with both western and eastern worlds. He graduated with a Bachelor’s in Fine Art from RMIT University in Melbourne in 1995. He spent a year as artist in residence at DAAD Artist-in-Berlin program in Germany in 2014. His works have been showcased internationally at Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei; Ideas Platform, Sydney; Centre Pompidou in Paris; the daadgalerie in Berlin; and Times Museum, Guangzhou, to name just a few. Back in his homeland, Kasemkitvatana is known as an influential artist and prominent curator, reinvigorating the contemporary art scene in the 1990s with critically acclaimed exhibitions of his own and others’ work. His shows at About Studio / About Café introduced many young Thai artists who later became major names. He also experimented with new platforms to rejuvenate the art community. In the early 2000s, he co-founded Namdee Publishing Station and VER Magazine, co-editing with Rirkrit Tiravanija to create Thailand’s first visual-and-audio magazine. With artist Pratchaya Phinthong, he is also co-founder and co-editor of Messy Sky Magazine and Messy Project Space. Turning his focus to museums, Kasemkitvatana introduced a contemporary approach at Mrigadayavan Palace and King Vajiravudh Memorial Hall to reveal hidden history and wisdom via refreshing exhibitions. During his time in monk’s robes, Kasemkitvatana discovered the creative spirituality that lies in the non-dualistic point of view. His practice shares features with the work of Marcel Duchamp, Kazimir Malevich and Yves Klein, all of whom Kasemkitvatana counts as influences. Duchamp chose everyday objects based on a “reaction of visual indifference” and total absence of good or bad taste, Malevich took a bird’s-eye view of the fourth dimension, and Klein urged artists to “leap into the void”.

At the core of his practice is the passage of time in which each show unveils the interconnectedness of current events and the wider tapestry of history in which they unfold. His created objects are devices for reconnecting life, art, environment, politics and the universe. Each are steps forming a spiral staircase that winds round and round through echoes and repetition, circling an empty core.

Phatarawadee Phataranawik