Bangkok hosts biggest ever show of LGBT art from Southeast Asia

The exhibition at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, ‘Spectrosynthesis II’, is put on by foundation set up to raise the visibility of LGBT community via art shows

Founder Patrick Sun hopes it sends a message to that community ‘that we belong, and don’t have to be secretive about who we really are’

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Part of the exhibition “Spectrosynthesis II: Exposure of Tolerance, LGBTQ in Southeast Asia” in Bangkok. Photo: courtesy of Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and Sunpride Foundation

Published: 2:00pm, 1 Dec 2019Updated: 7:49pm, 1 Dec 2019

The upper floors of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre were packed with an eager crowd, their phones out ready to film. You would have thought Beyoncé was about to make an appearance. As music blasted, six performers emerged one by one in drag. Entertaining and aptly titled Land of a Thousand Rainbows, the performance was commissioned for the opening of an exhibition of contemporary art from Southeast Asia that explores LGBT themes.

Ming Wong, a Singaporean artist based in Berlin, was the best known of the performers. He was joined by artists Bradd, Radha, Tamarra, Josh Serafin and Amadiva in a performance based on Southeast Asian myths that finished with a rapid-fire rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive.

Infused with sass, confidence, and a grand sense of celebration, the performance encapsulated the spirit of Sunpride Foundation, which has put on the exhibition, “Spectrosynthesis II: Exposure of Tolerance, LGBTQ in Southeast Asia”.

The foundation was set up five years ago by Patrick Sun to raise awareness about LGBT issues through art. “From day one we knew exactly what we wanted to do,” he says, “to help raise visibility and respect for the [LGBT] community through art exhibitions. That’s how you can create a platform to communicate the issues you want to talk about – whatever issues are currently relevant to the community.”

Land of a Thousand Rainbows, the drag queen performance that opened the “Spectrosynthesis II” art exhibition in Bangkok. Photo: courtesy of Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and Sunpride Foundation

Featuring works by more than 50 artists, “Spectrosynthesis II” is the largest exhibition yet of its kind, and follows a previous show, “Spectrosynthesis”, which had a successful run at Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, Taiwan, in 2017.