RECENT EXHIBITION AT THE FERRY GALLERY CURATED BY KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR BRINGS TOGETHER WATERMELON AND DOMESTIC GESTURES, TWO VIDEO WORKS BY ARTISTS STEVE CARR AND TANIA SMITH.
What viewers, (commuters who use the ferry to cross the Chao Praya River from Tha Tien Pier to Wat Arun Pier) get to experience in DOMESTIC GESTURES (2016) by Tania Smith showing on the boat’s front screens is basically video footage of a woman’s bizarre daily routine where she takes unlikely household items such as a broom, toaster, pillow, etc. and misuses them, from sweeping a gravel road with the broom to throwing the toaster in a posture resembling an Olympian discus thrower. Steve Carr’s Watermelon (2015) is installed at the rear end of the ferry, projecting moving images of a watermelon with two pairs of arms wrapping rubber bands around it one by one until the fruit finally breaks in two. What the two works have in common is their reference to the expectations and pressures that society puts on women. And even within the limited time of each commuter’s ferry trip, Watermelon is able to pass on a fluttery and uncomfortable feeling to the audience who is watching, waiting and wondering whether or not the fruit will explode. But that’s what’s so cool about Carr’s work – viewers don’t have to know what will ultimately happen as what is really important is the feelings of unease that they are able to experience while finally getting to feel what some people have been feeling the entire time.
Watermelon & Domestic Gestures, Image © Kawita Vatanajyankur
Watermelon & Domestic Gestures, Photo by Napat Charitbutra
TEXT: NAPAT CHARITBUTRA
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