In this valuable and long overdue study of recent art in Thailand, David Teh reminds us of why and how we need to rethink the language used to discuss contemporary art. With equal parts sympathy and criticality, Teh offers an innovative set of tools aimed at refreshing necessary debate on how we might usefully imagine the future structure of a history of cultural production. -- Joan Kee, Associate Professor, University of Michigan; author of Contemporary Korean Art: Tansaekhwa and the Urgency of Method How might we write contemporary art histories that explore the challenges of the global without forgoing the rich specificities of a locality, a nation, or a region? Teh's landmark study of the contemporary in Thailand shows us how, deploying a suite of extraordinary case studies that weave deftly between the 1960s and the present, and across a remarkable range of media throughout and beyond the Thai peninsula. This book is a game-changer not only for Southeast Asian art histories but for anyone engaged in contemporary art -- it's a beautifully illustrated, superbly written explosion of ideas. -- Anthony Gardner, Associate Professor in Contemporary Art History and Theory, University of Oxford; author of Politically Unbecoming: Postsocialist Art against Democracy David Teh's engaging and lucid book is not only an authoritative study of recent contemporary Thai art but also breaks truly novel ground for a discipline that has long struggled with the adequate conceptual framing of the contemporary and its global currencies. -- Anselm Franke, curator and writer, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin Thai Art, the richness of which is relevant both to experts and to those seeking an entry point to the region, will become a key reference to understanding the deep entanglement of the specific context of this nation and the art that arises from it. -- Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
David Teh, Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the National University of Singapore, is an independent curator and critic who has organized exhibits in Europe, Australia, and across Southeast Asia.
This is a thoroughly researched and focused book, the only one to look seriously at contemporary Thai art and its relationship to its nation. It is a welcome corrective to the Western assumption that Thai works are happily Buddhist, always characterised by the Thai smile.—The Burlington Magazine
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