When in Bangers: Blend In @ The Bangkok Arts & Cultural Centre (BACC)

The Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre (BACC) is a trendy white-washed concrete slab of a building littered with an abundance of local hipsters; casually loitering around the BACC's revolving entrance door. Unfortunately, for me another Biennale was on show (1). In keeping with my haughty tradition of demonstrating a strong disdain for the contemporary Biennale movement (too much pretentious hype and not enough painting for me personally - or perhaps I was just dragged along to too many when back at art school), instead, scowling disappointingly, I donned my dark glasses and headed off to blend in with the hipsters congregating on the ground floor in their rather organic looking coffee-pot establishment. Ordering a hot cocoa I stood peering out of a large, glass window from inside the chilly, air-conditioned BACC, at a sweltering downtown 32c Bangers at dusk.

The interior of the BACC is the whitest of whites, visually impressive with its numerous floors giving it a unique sense of vertical space. Level One had a delightful little art shop that carried a lot of French and Dutch painting supply stock that you just don't see in Sydney. Located opposite was a little violin shop, a small Thai language bookstore and various Thai local artisans selling handmade items off folding tables. Sorry - no mass produced museum stamped memorabilia until you reach the top floor. (Nice work and very much in line with The BACC's mission statement - which can be found here: en.bacc.or.th/content/32.html)

A shop that sells fiddles in a state run museum? - What a great idea!

Next to the violin shop, was one of a number of small gallery spaces with some wonderfully imaginative collographs by local Thai artist Surasit Samrong. The works had some terrific titles such as 'Take Your Mind on Holidays' (yes please!) in which one of the works featured a man lying in a claw foot bath sailing out to sea - Highly recommend! :-)

Collograph by the very talented Surasit Samrong c2016

Surasit Samrong's wonderful exhibition.

(1)www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/biennale-of-sydney-2018-review-john-mcdonald-on-a-failure-of-imagination-20180326-h0xymq.html