Art Monthly (issue #369)

For my second blog entry I decided I would look at Art Monthly #369, a popular magazine which explores the 'Fine Art' subheading within contextual art and design. I came across a profile article based on Pratchaya Phinthong, a current artist who lives and works in Bangkok. His work is described as being full of "political stories, historical stories" and "stories of real peoples lives". One of his exhibitions which is one of his most recent is pictured to the right and links to the notion of his work depicting "historical stories". The skull, known as the 'Broken Hill' skull was a great inspiration to Phinthong and he used this as a starting point to base his commission on whilst he travelled. He also used this skull, which is actually a replica of the first early human fossil found in Africa, in one of his exhibitions as part of a performance piece with the man in the photo. The man present in the photograph is not Phinthong himself but a man called Kamfwa Chisala, a Zambian museum guide who travels where ever the exhibition goes. As far as analysis's go, the skull itself is life size as it is a replica of a real human skull which was found. Visually I believe this performance piece works successfully - Chisala would not only speak to the audience whilst presenting the skull as the inspiration for his other works in his exhibition, he would also present it as an original performance piece of art (therefore it served a double purpose). Phinthong's use of historical links also acts as a positive as many people will be interested in the history and stories behind the 'Broken Hill Skull' (it has been used to supports Darwin's theory of evolution). Nevertheless, as a single piece of performance art I believe it's at its weakest, and due to the fact that the skull was not made/constructed  by Phinthong himself it has its limitations. Some of the audience may nitpick Phinthong for using something which wasn't a piece of original art in his exhibition and may think its a weak attempt at a performance piece. Maybe only when placed inside the 'Broken Hill' exhibition does it really project the power it holds and can't be criticised so easily?