Scene from a Wake
Second winner of the Han Nefkens Foundation - BACC Award for Contemporary Art
February 4–March 6, 2016
Wangmai, Pathumwan
939 Rama I Road
Bangkok
10330
Thailand
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am–9pm
T +66 221466308
F +66 2 214 6639
info@bacc.or.th
In Scene from a Wake, Anup Mathew Thomas presents a set of works that look at disparate incidents spread over a century. Protagonists include a social reformer, a planter, a dentist, a restaurateur, a bishop, and an artist. Thomas continues to build up his collection of stories from one place, persistently archiving alternative moments from different histories, some of which then come together based on commonalities that may be odd but are significant. In Scene from a Wake, Thomas puts forward the breakdown of plans, inescapable outcomes, and the future as a space ripe for speculation.
Anup Mathew Thomas (b. 1977) lives and works in Bengaluru, India. He works primarily with the photograph and is interested in the slippages between documentary and artistic practice. Often working in series, Thomas’ images offer access to microhistories and subcultures embedded in the seemingly everyday. Situated between the documentary form and constructed images, his practice is consistently in dialogue with the complexities of representation through the photographic image.
In the words of curator and writer Melanie Pocock: “Thomas’ works focus on the nuances and prickly veracity of photography…A careful balancing of planning, framing, and contingency, his photographs fuse these elements to the point where their exact makeup is almost impossible to define—despite their accompaniment by explanatory texts authored by the artist.”
About the Han Nefkens Foundation - BACC Award for Contemporary Art
The Han Nefkens Foundation - BACC Award for Contemporary Art is a collaboration between the Han Nefkens Foundation and the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC). The award is aimed at up-and-coming artists under 40 living in Asia. The long list of candidates is put together by ten scouts from different areas in Asia who each select three artists. A jury then chooses the winning artist.
This biannual award seeks to encourage artists in Asia who already have a solid body of work but have not yet been showcased in major institutions. The award consists of 15,000 USD: a 3,000 USD artist’s fee and 12,000 USD towards the production of new work as well as a residency and an exhibition at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.
For more information
Ms. Laila Bunnag, Arts Network Department (International Relations), Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC)
T 02 214 6630 8 ext. 528 / F 02 214 6639 / laila.b [at] bacc.or.th
