Read review and related essay co-written by Kai Syng Tan and Professor Andrew Stahl published on UCL
Monologue Dialogue 4: Mysticism and Insecurity is a 16-person international group show held at The Koppel Project 93 Baker Street 4 May – 1 July 2017. Curated by Professor Andrew Stahl (UCL Slade School of Fine Art), participating artist are: Eric Bainbridge, Rana Begum, Tintin Cooper, Yvonne Feng, Miranda Housden, Neil Jeffries, Sansern Milindasuta, Atsuko Nakamura, Nipan Oranniwesna, Be Takerng Pattanopas, Tuksina Pipitkul, Nathaniel Rackowe, Andrew Stahl, Kai Syng Tan, Jedsada Tangtrakulwong, and Panya Vijinthanasarn. As Professor Stahl points out, the Monologue Dialogue series has grown from a British Council initiated and funded residency and exhibition in Bangkok, Thailand. From then onwards a series of exhibitions have taken place in Bangkok and London with an evolving and expanding group of participating artists. The last exhibition was in 2014 at the BACC (the Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre). The key focus for the artists has been to install or construct work in a space/gallery together and in some way to reflect on the transcultural nature of today’s discourse for artists. MD4 is supported by Royal Thai Embassy, UCL Global Engagement, Slade School of Fine Art and Leeds College of Art. The show opened on 3 May and was attended by the Thai Ambassador to UK. Public engagement activities during the exhibition have included a guided tour and artist’s talk on 4 May.
On 15 June, there was also an informal evening co-run by Kai with Professor Stahl. There was a discussion (with Manick Govinda/Artsadmin, Loredana Paracciani, Asian art specialist, and Parinot Kunakornwong, London-based Thai artist) on ‘transcultural exchanges in an insecure world’, drinks and a live art intervention by guest artist James Steventon in collaboration with Kai. The performance is partly inspired by Martin Creed’s Work No. 850 (2004) and Claudia Kappenberg’s Slow Races (2014 De La Warr Pavillion). All photos (which are in random order) in this gallery are by Kai Syng Tan unless otherwise stated.
