HAUNTED THRESHOLDS

Art Labor, Maung Day, Riel Hilario, Ho Tzu Nyen, Nguyen Trinh Thi, Jakrawal Nilthamrong, Yudi Noor, Kaensan Rattanasomrerk, John Frank Sabado, Taiki Sakpisit, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, Than Sok, Truong Cong Tung, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Entang Wiharso

Exhibition curated by Lauren Reid in collaboration with Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia

9 November - 21 December 2014
Kunstverein Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Yudi Noor Stone immaculate 2011. Bronze, copper, wood, steel, acrylic, colored agate, curcuma, crystal, volcanic stone. Dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Christian Ehrentraut

Haunted Thresholds arises from a collaboration between the Kunstverein Göttingen and ‘Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia’ (DORISEA), a research network dedicated to investigating the relationship between religion and the contemporary in this region. Southeast Asia is particularly marked by a complex coexistence and cooperation among different cultures and religions. Religions there have developed a rich dynamic and play a prime role in shaping modernisation processes.

Investigating the subtle yet omnipresent influence of religion and spirituality in the everyday, this exhibition features artists from Southeast Asia who explore the thresholds or tipping-points between contemporary living and the incorporeal realm. Their works speak of invisible forces, modern enchantment, and karmic gestures. Spirituality and mythology merge almost seamlessly with the everyday, dissolving the boundaries between different realities, times or states of being.

The artists each present idiosyncratic and unresolved perspectives that spring from their unique experiences and current cultural contexts, rather than one that is representative of a single country, region or ideology. In particular, each artist uses their own index of mythical elements to form a bridge between their present moment and the complex of buried histories, shifting geographies and colonial wounds from which it has arisen.

The artworks are brought into an experimental dialogue with ethnographic objects from the Ethnographic Collection of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Göttingen. With their own aesthetic qualities, religious meanings and intellectual reflexivity, these objects from Southeast Asia, speak of the same topics as the art works: invisible forces, ancestral spirits and otherworldly powers in the everyday.

CATALOGUE: with texts by Peter J. Bräunlein, Andrea Lauser & Karin Klenke and Lauren Reid

left: John Frank Sabado
Ifugao warrior 2011
Pen and ink on paper 76 x 58cm
Courtesy the artist and The Drawing Room, Manila/Singapore


right: John Frank Sabado
Soaring spirits 2011
Pen and ink on paper 76 x 58cm.
Courtesy the artist and The Drawing Room, Manila/Singapore