THE TENEBROUS SPIRAL STAIRCASE OF THE -: Chitti Kasemkitvatana

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 (2021). 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. 

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.

Excerpt from Phatarawadee Phataranawik’s Walking Chitti Kasemkitvatana’s Tenebrous Spiral Staircase of the —