Monkey's Cooking Pot
Monologue Dialogue 3 (MD3) – Fragility and Monumentality – supported by the British Council at Bangkok Arts and Culture Centre (BACC) 27 June – 24 August 2014
The monkey’s opulent cooking pot crashes to the ground having tempted one too many victims.
This oversized chandelier appears to crash to the floor from the weight of the pitcher plant arms. Its grandiose monumentality, testing the frailty of its constituent materials and the construction methods, reflects a desire to live life to its full whilst acknowledging mental, physical and spiritual vulnerabilities.
The Thai pitcher plant’s colloquial name mor kaow mor kaeng ling – monkey’s cooking pot – gave a deeper resonance.
The concept of a baroque chandelier swinging precariously from the ceiling soon grew into a hairy monkey-like pot, twice the height of the gallery’s ceiling, displaying soft beautiful chain linked to the grotesque lips/orifices of the pitcher plant to entice and revolt.
This transformation was created by the collective effort of 25 Thai assistants who took the construction to a new level through the fabrication of the structure and intense wrapping of ribbon around 1000 links of metal.
All this was unpredicted and a delight.
See the making and moving of the Monkey’s Cooking Pot on the top floor of BACC in the videos below:
The chandelier chain being wrapped with ribbon
The cooking pot being installed through the night
Tuu and Fang welding the pitcher plant pods
Last minute assembling of the pods
Everyone helping to move the sculpture to a better position within BACC
See further information on the exhibition MD3: Monumentality and Fragility
Monkey’s Cooking Pot even made it’s way into Vogue ‘Monumentality and Fragility’ Culture – Vogue Thailand September 2014
All artwork by Miranda Housden