Nothing is quite as it seems in Bangkok on a Public holiday weekend. With the King himself elsewhere. The city is decorated for a party but there are no additional public celebrations. People do indeed seem to be taking a break and the city seems quieter than we imagined, Businesses and Temples are closing earlier.

Our evening explorations are proving to be unpredictable. Daytime yesterday we achieved what we set out to do and I thought I knew what this blog was going to be about. Based as it is on a daytime event. Our day was planned to be spent at Moca, The Museum of Contemporary Art which it was. And then I was going to write about it. But one of Asias largest collections of Contemporary art blew my mind a bit and I feel lost as to where to start. So much so that we are off to a different art gallery today to try and get a bit of context and maybe distil  my thoughts. Even my trusty phone camera was baffled. The top picture is by Yayoi Kusami. Not her traditional Polka dots, this 2021 painting is still part of her Infinity Nets series. The painting is a yellow and black image displayed on a lime green wall. Nothing I did could replicate the acidity of the combination. A fine metaphor for the rest of our visit really. So this blog is not going to be about the art we saw but more about how we felt. I am going to share two proper writers reviews of this collection of contemporary art because my inane witterings will not do it justice.

https://www.cntraveler.com/activities/bangkok/museum-of-contemporary-art-moca-bangkok

https://sawasdee.thaiairways.com/love-art-heres-a-handy-guide-to-the-moca-bangkok/

Please read them, they really will better prepare you for my over-sharing of our responses.

The first one I need to get off my chest, pun intended, is that I was exhausted by perfect perky breasts and smooth, mostly hairless bodies. Traditional and cultural stories, visually explored even in contemporary art seemed very much aimed at the ‘ male gaze’ market.

Goddesses are perhaps excused perfection but goodness me it got exhausting.

Some images were, to me a little troubling. One, certainly traditional in subject matter, represented young girls, just at pre-, puberty preparing for traditional Thai dancing. What was unsettling to my Western eyes was that so many of them needed to be topless and also, due to the skill of the artist, seem to lock eyes with the viewer.

Much more to my taste was the one below that represented more natural older women.

It is going to take me and google quite some time to research the meaning of this in Buddhism but these are just my early response.

Sundays seem to be the day instagrammers are about. There were several groups of people, one at least with a professional photographer, anxious not to see the art but to ‘be seen’ with the art.

Not that I am immune to the lure of the ‘gram’.

I have no shame in sharing that it appears on my Instagram grid.

So much more art to discuss, so little time. Arty witterings for many future blogs.