Playful Obfuscation,
Electronic Buddhist Mourning,
Peacemaking across Mountains,
Superpower Sympathy
four forms of embodied spirituality in the work of Pisitakun Kuntalang
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Pisitakun Kuntalang is a multidisciplinary artist who works in installation, painting, illustration, animation and experimental music. He is one of the artists in the pan-Asian network C H I N A B O T. More recently he has started his own label HH and music collective with Jibu Ki, called Neighbours Collective.
You understand his work, whether visual or auditory or tactile, only as you participate in it. In the language of Open Horizon (Process) Thinking, the art is active and relational. You don't know it unless you join in. |
In the visual and sonic art on this page, Pisitakun practices aspects of the Process Way and, along the way, presents four practices which we can emulate in our own ways in our daily lives, no matter what age:
By spirituality we in the Process community mean embodied wisdom in daily life and emotional intelligence. We take our understaning of wisdom and intelligence from the interfaith organization called Spirituality and Practice as they identify 37 qualities of heart and mind that are, or can be, wise in their own right. Here's the list we work with:
Attention -- Beauty -- Being Present -- Compassion -- Connections -- Devotion -- Enthusiasm -- Faith -- Forgiveness -- Grace -- Gratitude -- Hope -- Hospitality -- Imagination -- Joy -- Justice -- Kindness -- Listening -- Love -- Meaning -- Nurturing -- Openness -- Peace -- Play -- Questing -- Reverence -- Shadow -- Silence -- Teachers -- Transformation -- Unity -- Vision -- Wonder -- X (the Mystery) -- Yearning -- You -- Zeal
You will find many of these qualities of heart and mind in his art: Imagination, Justice, Play, Shadow, Transformation, Wonder, Yearning, and more. But to this list we need to add some more "letters" when we participate in Pisitakun's work: "C" is for creativity, "H" is for humor; "I" is for Intensity. Pisitakun Kuntalang illustrates the spiritual alphabet and also widens it. Moreover, he shows the way that sonic and visual technologies, including laptops and social media and cartoon-like superheroes, can be part of the play. "P" is for Play and "J" is for Justice. His work is enjoyable in its own right, quite apart from whether or not it helps people become wider, fatter souls. But the truth is, with a desire to become wider in heart and mind, his work -- along with that of many other associated with the pan-Asian experimental arts scene -- his art can be a vessel for growth in inner strength and outer love.
- Fuzzing Past Limits on Free Speech: He fuzzes the limits of free speech in Thailand and other parts of Asia through a "playful obcscuration through sound."
- Electronic Buddhist Mourning: He performs a novel, electronic mode of mourning at the death of his father: "electronic Buddhist mourning"
- Peacemaking across Mountains: He embodies an act of peacemaking, or bridge-building across mountainous terrains (in his case Thailand and Laos and Cambodia) through collaborative sonic art, created with Lafidki (Cambodia) and Ayankoko (Laos).
- Superpower Sympathy: In collaboration with Porntip Mankong, a marevelous Thai artist and ativist in her own right, he creates an installation at the world famous WTF cafe in Bangkok (see below) in which participants immerse themselves in the super-heroic for the sake of a more compassionate society.
By spirituality we in the Process community mean embodied wisdom in daily life and emotional intelligence. We take our understaning of wisdom and intelligence from the interfaith organization called Spirituality and Practice as they identify 37 qualities of heart and mind that are, or can be, wise in their own right. Here's the list we work with:
Attention -- Beauty -- Being Present -- Compassion -- Connections -- Devotion -- Enthusiasm -- Faith -- Forgiveness -- Grace -- Gratitude -- Hope -- Hospitality -- Imagination -- Joy -- Justice -- Kindness -- Listening -- Love -- Meaning -- Nurturing -- Openness -- Peace -- Play -- Questing -- Reverence -- Shadow -- Silence -- Teachers -- Transformation -- Unity -- Vision -- Wonder -- X (the Mystery) -- Yearning -- You -- Zeal
You will find many of these qualities of heart and mind in his art: Imagination, Justice, Play, Shadow, Transformation, Wonder, Yearning, and more. But to this list we need to add some more "letters" when we participate in Pisitakun's work: "C" is for creativity, "H" is for humor; "I" is for Intensity. Pisitakun Kuntalang illustrates the spiritual alphabet and also widens it. Moreover, he shows the way that sonic and visual technologies, including laptops and social media and cartoon-like superheroes, can be part of the play. "P" is for Play and "J" is for Justice. His work is enjoyable in its own right, quite apart from whether or not it helps people become wider, fatter souls. But the truth is, with a desire to become wider in heart and mind, his work -- along with that of many other associated with the pan-Asian experimental arts scene -- his art can be a vessel for growth in inner strength and outer love.
@ Pisitakun Facebook Page
@ Pisitakun Facebook Page
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@ Pisitakun Facebook Page
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Playful Obfuscation
fuzzing past restrictions on free speech
@ Pisitakun Facebook Page
The Art of Pisitakum Kuantaloeng: |
Constructive Apophatic Resistance: |
Electronic Buddhist Mourning
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"Created shortly after the death of his father to cancer, Thai artist Pisitakun has combined traditional mourning instruments with harsh noise and techno beats, wrapping them around intimate recordings of the hospital machinery keeping his father alive during his final days...The result is SOSLEEP, a meditation on the raw, messy chaos of grief. Opening with the sound of a Buddhist monk’s funeral chants, the record’s BMP is led by real recordings of his father heartbeat, turned into electronic blips by the hospital pulse gauge...Droning, aching Thai funeral instruments mingle with the sound of his father’s oxygenator to express the woozy disorientation of loss...As is tradition in Thailand, Pisitakun joined a Buddhist monastery for a short period as a monk following his father’s passing. The sounds of the monastery, along with his father’s funeral service, also bled into this record."
@ Pisitakun Facebook Page
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@ Pisitakun Facebook Page
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Creative Peacemaking
Sonic Bridge Building Across Mountainous Divides
@ Wikipedia
"Dângrêk Mountains is a new series of split cassettes which combine a band from one side of a border with another band from the other side....It's an introduction to several artists from countries in Asia which had disputes over some specific border areas in the past and present. It shows how these violent conflicts generate a greener, more peaceful area, such as a demilitarised zone, which contrasts overgrown vegetation and wires with observation posts and armed soldiers. The wildlife becomes richer because the land is unsafe for construction and less exposed to human disturbances; silence surrounds this environment. Instead of fighting, we're recreating soundscapes and sharing a release together....The name of this first split is "Dângrêk Mountains," the name of the border where Thailand, Laos and Cambodia intersect. The intensity of the border clashes contrasts with its nature and wildlife. Preah Vihear Temple, a contested religious site on the Thai-Cambodian part of the Dângrêk Mountains border, has become quite symbolic of the history of conflict between the two countries."
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Dângrêk Mountains: Wikipedia
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@ Pisitakun Facebook Page
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@ Pisitakun Facebook Page
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Superpower Sympathy
celebrating the remarkable power -- indeed the superpowers -- of the incarcerated in surviving prison
Promotional images for Planet Krypton. Photos: Christopher Wise / Courtesy
Become the hero you were meant to be at WTF’s ‘Planet Krypton
’By Todd Ruiz Apr 25, 2019 | 2:09pm Bangkok time
"Find out what kind of superhero you are – and what danger that poses in an unjust world – at an interactive exhibition opening Friday at Bangkok’s WTF Gallery & Cafe.
While many of us worry about our battery levels or matching with someone on Tinder, nearly 400,000 Thais – including a disproportionate number of women – languish in dire prison conditions, often for minor drug offenses.
Not that the artists behind “Planet Krypton,” which runs tomorrow through June 2, want people to feel bad about this. They’ve designed a deceptively fun experience meant to stealthily provoke some empathy in a digital, attention-deficit generation.
Start atop the two-floor exhibition by hopping through what looks like an obstacle course – only to realize its disturbing implications halfway through. From there, it’s a gameshow-style scene where up to five people can line up behind pedestals to respond to questions on a wall-mounted video display.
The questions pose moral quandaries drawn from real life, such as what to do if you have no money to pay for your food, according to curator Somkra Sila. Step into the next room with your results to find out what hero that makes you before suiting up and taking selfies in the right costume.
Head downstairs and things take a turn. Those same qualities that defined your brand of heroism also set you on a perilous path of unintended consequences in a world where justice benefits the few at the expense of the many.
In a mirror universe metaphor for what came before, guests will learn of the prospective crimes and be exposed to what that can mean in a nation with the world’s sixth highest rate of incarceration. The experience ends with another opportunity to take a selfie – this time in an authentic Thai prison jumpsuit.
“It’s about the power of people whose lives have been disrupted to transform that into something positive,” Somrak said.
The project is a collaboration between gonzo artist Pisitakun Kuntalang and Prontip Mankong.
It’s the second exhibition for Prontip, who spent two years behind bars as a prisoner of conscience. Rather than being broken or angry by her experience, Prontip poured herself into bettering the lives of other women inmates to help them survive together."
