H Gallery # State Of Ridiculous

STATE OF THE RIDICULOUS

Tuksina Pipitkul and Wantanee Siripattananuntakul

February 26 – April 26 2015

Curated by Brian Curtin

Bangkok, Thailand – H Gallery is very pleased to announce the pairing of Tuksina Pipitkul and

Wantanee Siripattananuntakul, two dexterous artists who employ the vernacular of popular

culture to playful and provocative effect. State of the Ridiculous explores the tropes of the

ridiculous – silly, laughable, derisive – as a means of social commentary while also claiming the

inevitable ridiculousness of much that purports to give profound meaning to our lives.

Mounted across the gallery’s main space and H Project Space, the exhibition is an integrated

experience that carries visitors between the delightful and ominous. Themes include the

fragility of social hierarchies, the flux of cultural symbols and the arbitrary attribution of value

in personal and market exchange. State of the Ridiculous includes a major new installation by

Wantanee that explores the often absurd appearances of societal inequality and

disenfranchisement.

The politics of play and playfulness has long informed the serious work of alternative and

critical cultures, from art to activism. This exhibition explores the depoliticizing sensibilities of

local understandings of play and fun as a retreat into wilful ignorance and failure to face

political realities. Oscillating between the carefree and the consequential, State of the

Ridiculous subversively demands that we look again at how we imagine and relate to difficult

circumstances in the contemporary world.

Tuksina Pipitkul graduated from Thailand’s Silpakorn University and holds an MFA from California State

University, Northridge, California. She has held artist’s residencies in Moriya, Japan at ARCUS project

(2001) and also at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2010). Tuksina has had solo exhibitions at the

Cedar Art Center in California (2000), Conference of Birds Gallery, Bangkok (2008), the Japan Foundation

(2001), and at the Oddyssee Gallery in Bangkok (2004). Group exhibitions include, 6+1+1 (2005) at the

Art Center, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, AB-OVO (2005) 7th International Multimedia Art Festival

(IMAF), Serbia, Constructors de Somnis (2006) Spain, Props (2011) at Yinka Shonibare’s Guest Projects

space in London, England, Wrap (2012) 1st Bangkok Creative Exhibition, Bangkok, and MDIII (2014) at the

Bangkok Art and Cultural Center, Bangkok.

Wantanee Siripattananuntakul lives and works in Bangkok. She graduated from Thailand’s Silpakorn

University in 1999. Her early exhibitions include Wantanee Siripattananuntakoon (Wantanee 1:03,

Wantanee is here No.2, Wantanee is here, and Wantanee’s sky) shown in Bangkok and Australia. While

studying fine arts at The University of Art in Bremen, Germany, she developed the Manifesto Project

(Wantanee’s manifesto no.1, Wantanee’s manifesto no.2, Wantanee vs Wantanee, Interview with

Wantanee, and Wantanee’s one man show) (2005 – 2007). Other exhibitions include, A Wantanee

Retrospective (2007) at PSG Art Gallery, Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn

University, Bangkok, Wantanocchio (2008) exhibited in Bremen, Germany, and (2009) at the Thai

Pavilion, 53rd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, Wantanocchiobot’09 (2009) Ardel Gallery of Contemporary

Art, Bangkok, and (2010) Bangkok Art and Cultural Center (BACC), Bangkok, (Dis)continuity (2012) The

Art Center, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Living with un common value (2012) Kuenstler Haus,

Bremen, Germany, and III (2014) at The Art Center, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.

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