Abstract
This paper examines how contemporary Thai art—across galleries and urban streets—reconfigures political perception and public life in the aftermath of the 2020 protest wave. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with artist collectives and students, the study treats “aesthetics” not as beauty alone but as a sensory mode of knowing that can enable or disable political judgment. It argues that aesthetic injustice—when dominant norms prescribe what can be seen, felt, or said—functions as political injustice. Through close readings of Nipan Olarniwet’s exhibition F a l l and its sky/“drop” metaphors alongside emergent graffiti practices, the essay shows how artists invert the sky’s sacral distance into an accessible, ground-level horizon, exposing suppressed memories (e.g., the Red Gate) and reframing state violence as a shared civic question. Mobilizing Hannah Arendt’s “space of appearance” and “common world,” the study situates street murals and participatory projects as infrastructures of publicness under legal constraint, while Jacques Rancière’s concepts of aesthetic equality and dissensus clarify how these works redistribute visibility and voice beyond elite cultural gatekeeping. The research contributes (1) an account of Thai aesthetics as a contested sensory regime, (2) an analysis of gallery–street linkages that turn spectators into co-authors of political meaning, and (3) evidence that artistic practices do not merely reflect but actively shape Thailand’s evolving democratic imagination.
Presenters
Sorayut AiemueayutAssistant Professor, Media, Arts and Design, Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
KEYWORDS
Thailand political art aesthetics and politics street art public sphere
