Dealing with the artist’s background, an interview video piece was created for this group exhibition of Thai and Indian artists. Featuring seven elderly Non-resident Indians (NRI) and People of Indian origin (PIO) who now reside in Chiang Mai, Navin Rawanchaikul posed questions to them in response to their memories and experiences of both India and Thailand. The 17-minute video was screened in a black room labelled with the sign “Hong Rub Khaek” at the entrance. “Khaek” in Thai means ‘visitor’ but also implies people of Indian origin as outsiders. Functioning as reception room, Hong Rub Khaek is a space loaded with cultural and racial implications in which visitors consider notions of belonging, immersion and acceptance.

In the center of the room installation is an old sofa set, taken from the artist’s old house, while on the walls hang two nostalgic paintings facing one another. One painting is a self-portrait of the artist in student uniform displaying his name and the origin of his Indian surname in Thai as “Rawal”, while the other painting shows the artist’s daughter Mari alone on seesaw in front of the old train station in Gujranwala, the city where his mother was born and migrated from to Thailand in 1947 during the India-Pakistan partition. Hanging outside the room is a personal handwritten letter from the artist to his daughter that explains the artist’s childhood confusion over his racial and national identity to help her accept her own sense of place as an Indian-Japanese girl living in Japan.

Also presented in the exhibition were the artist’s two early 90’s bottle series Voiceless Room which were included because they captured the sense of displacement and alienation among Chiang Mai’s elderly populace, themes that interconnect with the Hong Rub Khaek.

Gallery

Hong Rub Khaek