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Bangkok-based artist, Chris Coles, will be giving a talk on “German Expressionism and the Bangkok Night” at FCCT in Bangkok this Friday, 19 October, 7pm, as part of the Opening for his new show, “Paintings from the Bangkok Night” which will be on exhibit at FCCT until 14 November.
Chris will be speaking from his point of view as an artist who often paints scenes in the expressionist style of Bangkok’s chaotic and colorful nightlife and the intersection points he sees between early 1900’s Berlin and Bangkok in the early twenty-first century.
Philip Cornwel-Smith, the author of Very Thai, will give a short introduction, sharing his thoughts on the Bangkok nightlife scene as a source of inspiration for writers, artists, musicians and film-makers.
Following the Q&A, there will be a live jazz band playing.
Admission will be free and all are welcome for what promises to be a lively evening.
More details and location/map available here: http://fccthai.com/items/930.html
I thought the rather negative reactions on Chris Cole’s work on this blog some months ago highlighted the major points of critique:
Unreflexive romanticism of red light districts in post-conflict societies.
Is the reference to the “German expressionism” another attempt to get the label “art”?
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Perhaps Thomas Murray is unaware that most of the German Expressionist artists drew much inspiration from Berlin’s notorious nightlife in the early 1900’s and produced 100’s of paintings that portrayed Berlin’s nightlife venues, workers and patrons.
Or, fair enough, perhaps he just prefers other artistic movements and subjects.
The Fauvists in Paris circa 1900 also favored Paris’ vibrant and colorful nightlife, its workers and patrons as a frequent subject for their paintings.
Is Thomas suggesting that contemporary Bangkok’s very large and colorful nightlife and its hundreds of thousands of workers and patrons should be off-limits for all artists, or perhaps only off-limits for Mr. Coles? ( http://nationmultimedia.com/life/Creatures-of-the-night-30192373.html )
Links to Expressionists:
http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/artists
http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/themes/dance_leisure
http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/themes/sex
Link to Fauvists:
http://noma.org/pages/detail/114/
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One might like it or not -that is the good thing about “art”. For an academic blog however, Chris’ work is too simple minded. Referring constantly to Emil Nolde and Berlin is just another cheap way to set the “Bangkok noir” artist in a more elaborate veneer and to get some credentials.
By the way, everyone who actually knows a bit about Berlin in the 1920s would blatantly reject the attempt to compare Bangkok (present) and Berlin (1920s). The context, even concerning the commercialization of sex, is quite different.
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Re: Marc
Have you looked at Coles’ book, Navigating the Bangkok Noir? There are about a hundred of his paintings and quite a bit of text. While many people might not enjoy or like or even want to look at the paintings plus read the text, I think it’s a stretch to call either Coles, the paintings or the book “simple-minded”.
There’s a version online if you don’t have a copy already: http://goo.gl/9nlMx
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Thanks Rupert for the link. The pictures and the texts are even below my worst expectations though. One of the most ridiculous descriptions can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/cjk3t2x
All I am seeing is that Chris is depicting brothels and bars with additional, and often ludicrous, information on the presmises and the girls.
What is the difference between Chris and dozens of other websites on the internet describing the red light areas in Bangkok?
One might get the impression that Chris only uses his pictures as excuse to talk about sex workers in Thailand.
Second, why is New Mandala promoting this kind of “expat hanging out in seedy bars in Bangkok and calls his pictures art”?
There is a common cliché on Thailand in the Western world: Sex industry and (white male) sex tourists. This cliché is manifested by the fact that a blog on Southeast Asia is promoting unreflexive pictures on the red light district in Bangkok.
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I like Chris’s work. I used one of his images on my course guide this year. Some of it is confronting and some of it makes me uncomfortable (and I have seen it have that effect on others). I don’t think it is unreflexive, but we are certainly reflecting on it here. That’s good.
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Well, Marc, it seems you don’t find Coles’ work pleasing to your eye, taste, mind or moral standards. However, others find them interesting enough to buy his book, go to his shows and purchase his paintings. Such is the nature of art.
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Re: Marc
Per your suggestion and link, I looked at Coles “Re-incarnated German Sex Tourist Soi Dog at Soi Cowboy” painting and accompanying text. ( http://tinyurl.com/cjk3t2x )
It seems to me you’ve entirely missed Coles’ ironic overlay, ambiguity, subtext and complex, elliptical style. I find his portrait of the Soi Dog to be rather charming. The eyes are so plaintive. He seems a bit lost. Clearly in need of some attention, but after all is now a dog.
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After having read all the comments and looked at the pictures and descriptions, I wonder whether Chris Coles is not just another “old hand” expat in Bangkok who enjoys the scene.
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For me the lasting image from Chris Coles previous Opening (at The Bed Supper Club) was the US Ambassador engaged in deep conversation with a couple of ladies from Soi Cowboy. I wonder were they talking Red Shirt politics, the state of the economy or the meaning of Chris’s art? Wish I could have been a ching chok on the wall.
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I wonder if the artist paints all those pictures while actually sitting in nightclubs with names like “G-spot-a-go-go”….
I wonder what the tourists think of him, or the bar girls?
Maybe all the girls know him as this rather odd falang man who comes to paint their pictures.
And then…?
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This thread is just another example of how far this NM blog lost its original track. The level of discussion is equally low as the contributed bits and pieces. Chris Coles works are symptomatic for that.
Btw: This post will definitely be censored or rather not published since my opinion is not conform with the mods perspectives. Poor advertising for the NM blog and the ANU in general.
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Thanks Khon Chon,
We have been very patient. But you really should pick one moniker and stick to it. Have we been censoring your alter-egos?
Best wishes to all,
Nich
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Chris Coles’ presentation at the FCCT was excellent. It was a joy to listen him speak, and at the same time showing slides of many of the great expressionist painters, bringing his art into the same context that inspired me almost 20 years ago to start my night photos.
He has shown only his large acrylics, which are very very strong. Colors and composition are Bangkok night, and do convey the feeling of these nights in great emotional depth, and including its many ambiguities.
Well, for those who can move beyond simplistic judgements…
And personally – i am glad that New Mandala makes space for creative work.
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On the subject of whether or not Coles’ Bangkok nightlife paintings are “un-reflexive”, readers might find Federico Ferrara’s essay “Thailand for Sale” interesting as there seems to be a strong commonality between what Professor Ferrara (U of HK, PhD Harvard) says explicitly and what is implicit in Coles’ paintings and accompanying text.
Link to “Thailand for Sale”:
http://www.khikwai.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Thailand4Sale.pdf
Link to one of Coles’ Nana Plaza Bangkok nightlife paintings:
http://navigating-the-bangkok-noir.blogspot.com/2012/06/closing-time-nana-plaza.html
Incidentally, on the same site, I noticed that a number of the leading writers/journalists etc. covering SE Asia and Bangkok seem to have quite a few nice things to say about Coles’ work and certainly do not consider it to be “un-reflexive”:
http://navigating-the-bangkok-noir.blogspot.com/2012/06/blurbs-quotes-from-writers-critics.html
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Link to “German Expressionism and the Bangkok Night” talk given at FCCT Oct 19, 2012, by Chris Coles:
http://bangkok-noir.blogspot.com/2012/11/german-expressionism-and-bangkok-night.html
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