A leading figure in the art and Internet movement, thirty-year-old Thai artist Korakrit Arunanondchai, amalgamates pop-culture, music, and his Thai origin in his pieces. He plays with the paradoxes and oxymorons of growing up in Bangkok and identifying as a Buddhist and finding his artistic career in America and adopting a more liberal western morality. He represents the dialectic between our conscious self and perception versus our unconscious sentiments in his abstract, all encompassing horror vacui installations. Arunanondchai was born in the capital city Bangkok in 1986. He grew up with four brothers in a privileged family; his grandfather was a Thai ambassador to America, France and Vietnam. He noted in an interview with VICE Magazine that his teenage years were defined by being in a semi-famous band in which he was much more handsome and talented than his band counterparts, according to famous Thai record label GMM, so, they split up. Arunanondchai is currently a superstar in the art world.
Thai artist Jirapat Tatsanasomboon broke political barriers with his emergence of a specialized theme within his artwork. Although contemporary art throughout Asia still lacks scholarly research and global recognition, Tatsanasomboon became a chief leader when bringing attention to the massive influences the Western world has made on the rich culture of Thailand, as well as the pressures the people of Thailand faced by the influence of Westernized consumerism. His paintings includes the recreation of some of the world's most acclaimed artworks including creations by Michelangelo Buonarroti and Frida Kahlo. This paper will outline Tatsanasomboon’s disappointment towards the Westernized world and its negative influence on Thai culture through paintings that merge Thailand's epic characters from the Hindu story the Ramakien and the recreations of famous artworks as well as the comparison of his artwork to the originals he modernized.
The brewing of beer is incredibly energy intensive. Beer is one of the most consumed beverages in the world, and the larger brewing operations use massive amounts of energy and water. This study will analyze the use of energy and other resources in 3 main brewing companies central to Asheville, North Carolina, and specifically will assess how these brewing companies communicate their efforts to have a clean footprint to the community and the greater public.
The struggle with representation in the media is complex--especially within the realm of queer film. Initially, stereotypes were used as an indication from filmmaker to the audience during the coding era as an indication of queer representation in film. Since then, queer cinema has evolved to explicitly include various aspects of LGBT+ community: however, queer film is anything but fully developed. The subtleties derived from the coding era specifically catered to a white audience because circumstances wouldn’t allow it to. Racism was not only embedded into the mindset of people, but also in its regulations. There are films about these communities but the people represented in these films are only a portion of the community. The majority of LGBT+ films fail to see diversity like cultural, religious, or disabled queer communities. The intention of my research is to focus specifically on racial diversity. I want to criticize modern queer film’s portrayal of racial diversity, and analyze its development with the films Philadelphia (1993) and Moonlight (2016). I want to analyze how portraying racial diversity and the lack thereof changes the narrative of these films. For instance, although the film Philadelphia specifically tackles the AIDS epidemic, and Moonlight is more a coming-of- age film, these films still portray the gay experiences in two different manners because of the complexities that come with interpreting race. The story become multidimensional, and in a mainstream perspective, less relatable and less profitable. The comparison of the black and gay experience in these films will help assist my research behind why there isn’t as much racial diversity in films as there should be.