The emergence and development of Thai contemporary arts and artists : a case study of Thai independent cinema

Abstract

This thesis aims at studying the emergence and development of Thai contemporary arts and artists. It attempts to analyze the cultural politics of emergent arts and artists, Thai cinema in particular, from the aesthetics perspective by using Gramscian theory of hegemony. The analysis reveals that the artists are challenging two notions: the notion of art and the imaginary Thainess constructed in the period of modernization/nation-building. Firstly the study examines that newly emerging Thai artists and their artworks create possibilities to deconstruct conventions of arts in both Thai and international art sphere by using novel and experimental artistic styles and blurring a distinction between art and popular culture. Secondly this thesis examines how it is that the new Thai artists and their artworks challenge Thai hegemony emerged by a narrative of globalization. The study, on one hand, considers that Thai hegemony created by Siamese/Thai elites roots in the mind of Thai artists and its spectators and reflects in their artworks. On the other hand, the new emergent artists and their artworks develop possibilities to challenge Thai hegemony by representing marginalized subjectivities. This study explores how the identity crisis in the globalization era brought about the phenomenon. The thesis looks at the cinematic images of three main concepts; namely Thai national identity, siwilai (or civilized nation) and sexuality by juxtaposing mainstream imageries with the visual and narrative construction in contemporary alternative cinema. The analysis reveals that mainstream filmic works use Thai hegemonic ideas for their expression while independent artists challenge it through alternative portrayals of un-Thainess and the marginal. In filmic representations of Thai national identity, mainstream Thai cinema portrays confrontation between Thainess and un-Thainess and generates nationalistic sentiment while independent filmmakers deal with subjectivities on un-Thainess. Likewise mainstream film portrayals of rural people, ethnic minorities and neighboring countries show their relational views based on degrees of supposed civilization but independent arts represent the subjects more sympathetically. Recent popularity of homosexual subjects in Thai cinema conveys similar tension between mainstream queer cinema, mostly on socially visible transgender and transsexual, from the heterosexual point of view, and independent homosexual-theme films, mostly on gay and lesbian subject matters, focus on their identity and life, which consequently bring homosexuality into the public sphere. The study shows that this group of emergent artists strives to express their identities both aesthetically and politically/socially, and their attitudes toward arts and society bring together like-minds with different backgrounds and form a new community. A community holds the possibility to become a group of intellectuals to challenge against the hegemonic power