WHAT ‘FLASH’ AND ‘MEMORIES’ HAVE IN COMMON IS A SENSE OF SOMETHING TEMPORARY, WHICH THIS ART MOVEMENT BROUGHT TO A MARKET IN RATCHABURI, THAILAND WHOSE FATE IS FACING A SIMILARLY TEMPORARY STATE .
Flash Memory, another artistic movement happening in Ratchaburi,Thailand, does not come in the conventional form of an art exhibition nor does it act as a change to, or addition of, another permanent art venue like the previous activities we have seen coming from Art Normal because, as the name implies, what ‘flash’ and ‘memories’ have in common, is the sense of something temporary that the movement itself embodies.
Flash Memory, Ratchaburi, Thailand
Created through collaboration between Art Normal and flynow III with Supakan Wongkeaw as curator and Somchai Songwattana in charge of the activity’s direction, on the morning of the 19th September 2016, Flash Memory turned Ratchaburi’s municipal market into a catwalk. 9.20 minutes was the exact time during which 10 models walked the runway before everything ended and the market went back to its normal activities.
Flash Memory, Ratchaburi, Thailand
The ‘temporary’ state of Flash Memories took place as a form of discussion about the past and present memories of this market whose own existence is about to change with the Municipality planning to demolish the public space that was once used as the community’s aerobic dance grounds and construct another market (against the locals’ preferences for the space to retain its same program). It is uncertain whether the change that is about to happen can be called a development, but the floral design of the textiles created for the collection (especially the Pink Cassia which is Ratchaburi’s provincial flower) sent out a perfect message regarding what changes the city is about to experience. Call it a ‘celebration’ or ‘remembrance,’ it all depends on how the results of that change turn out.
Flash Memory, Ratchaburi, Thailand