Baby Visits His First Museum (of sorts)

About a month ago, I felt compelled to find something educational to do with my 12 week old baby. (You see the problem already.) After puzzling over where one can take a baby in this city, my friend Nong and I decided to head to the Chiang Mai University Art Museum. I'd been there before, so my expectations were in check.

The show this time was an homage to the King of Thailand, who celebrates the 60th anniversary of his coronation this year, thus making him the longest reigning monarch in the world. The second gallery (of sorts) featured thesis projects from the university's MFA program.

I've said before that the definition of a Thai artist is any man with hair below his ear lobes and any woman with hair above her ear lobes. Thai people are "flock thinkers," which is very hard for a westerner to wrap the mind around. Some time ago, I came across an article by a western business guy talking about working with his Thai staff. He offered sales bonuses for individual achievement, and his staff didn't take him up on the idea. They preferred to SHARE the cash with every member of the team. How thoroughly un-American. So, I sometimes struggle to understand the viewpoint of my family, neighbors, and the population at large

The result of this "flock thinking" in the field of new art is that the flock dress alike and paint alike - mostly multiple copies of big flowers and illustrations of a standard repertoire of romanticized historical Thai cultural icons. If you're decorating a spa, it's just what you're in the market for.



Thai culture is in flux, as are all cultures at all times; but Thai people have witnessed a rapid change in lifestyle and are aggressively romantic about the recent past. Given that my mother-in-law is still living in that recent past, and I've experienced it first-hand, I don't find it romantic. It's traditional, for sure, but it's also physically very uncomfortable, at times very unsafe, and can be quite unhealthy. Amnat is the generation with one foot in each world, and he is balancing there quite well. Moving to the U.S. may tip his scales, but we have some time before that happens.



Back to the museum.... It fulfilled expectations. Lots of romantic illustrations of chickens, sunsets over grass houses, and temples. Baby slept through the entire visit, despite a total lack of ventilation in the cavernous (and leaky) concrete hulk of a building.

I amused myself (and perhaps, you) by taking photos of baby contemplating the art. Nong didn't really get the joke. I hope you will.

Next year, the Metropolitan, if all goes well!