The
purpose of doing this reflection is to reorganize and revise my
thought to understand my own project after a long break, and update
some of my visual work.
“My
project is practice based on research that extending Surrealist
techniques to explore the constructed in ideology of Thai masculinity.”
Normally,
Surrealist techniques are concerned on how to unlock the mental
resource but as Ben Highmore said, “Surrealism is a form of social
research into everyday life”. In other words, they created the
unusual in everyday life to made the audience to be thoughtful on
their surrounding. Meaning, I try to unlock my social inquiry instead
of consciousness and unconsciousness.
Mainly,
the techniques are based on the collaboration and games which
emphasize on an aesthetic of chance and association of languages and
images. I use a concept of the Exquisite Corpse game in which each
player is aware of what other players did but with small and unclear
information.
Word
Game...For two or more players, first player gives a word to second
player. Second player is “aware” of the first word and quickly
give another word to third player, and so on.
Which
later stage, I developed the game from word into combination of
sentences and images that hide keys to explore my social inquiry. The
results became sets of sentence that I chose and translate it into
visual work. How did I choose those set of sentence?
As Andre Breton said, “The value of the image
depends upon the beauty of the spark obtained”. In this statement,
Breton responds to the juxtaposition of the images from Exquisite
Corpse but my project use set of words and sentences. My responding
from the word “spark” is “it asked me question”.
...
guy
next door...The
guy next door is a hoary man, idiot.
...
teenager...A
teenager slips and falls down to the pond.
...
youngest
brother...A youngest brother is the hope for elders. They want him to
be advanced.
...
...
 |
| 40x50 cm, collage and oil on canvas |
 |
| 40x50 cm, collage and oil on canvas |
 |
| 40x50 cm, collage and oil on canvas |
Gender
is not constructed only by their biological but society and culture
also affect the ideology of it. In the past, Thai man was constructed
as a gender of power. Man fought in the war. They are able to have
more than one wife. Husband goes out to work which mostly are
agriculture while his wife works as housewife. Some people even said
that women were man's object. In present day, however by the economic
crisis, the changed of ideology in Thai society or other factors,
women are able to do men's job. In the other hand, men also can do
women's job. An obvious example in Thailand is
the first female prime minister in August 2011, Ms. Yingluck
Shinawatra. She became a signal that highlight the changes of women
role in Thailand, yet she left her position. It almost equal
but it is not; for example, man cooks because they love to do, while
woman cooks because it is their duty and fundamental of society.
Honestly, I still confuse of how deep and wide I should discuss about
this notion or I should focus on some aspects...
Currently,
I am reading...
-
Contemporary Portraits of Masculinity Images in Printed Advertising
in Metropolitan, Male - Targeted Magazines, Thesis from Degree of
Master Science in Marketing Management, Thammasat University, 2010 by
Miss Silaporn Charoensatit
-
Deconstructing Harry: A Critical Review of Men, Masculinity and
Organization by David Wicks & Albert J. Mills
I
had form some questions and furthermore I need to answer them...
-
What are aspects that have an impact on ideology in Thai masculinity?
-
How and Why do the aspects affected their power, performance,
position, spirituality and thought?
Pete ... a thoughtful and intelligent piece of writing. Seems like a very good strategy to look back over your work of the last semester and try to reshape/ reset it. Since we last met the question of masculinity has once again loomed large and the coupmakers have mobilised particular tropes of Thai masculinity, particularly in referencing ideas of the supposedly indigenously thai political practice of benevolant paternalistic strong leaders ... semiotically these have been grounded in idealised notions of Thai identity by associations with great male leaders of the mythical past (see for example, free screenings of Naresuan). This strategy is not new. Field Marshall Sarit adopted it in the late 1950's as a way of legitimating his dictatorial and repressive regime. You might take a quick look at Professor Tak Chaloemtirana's book Thailand: the Politics of Despotic Paternalism. Keep up the gret work. The images look really promising Pete n;)
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