A pure art film

A rich community of filmmakers in Thailand has emerged from the deep wellspring that is the contemporary art scene in Thailand. I haven't delved to much into it here, but one item from a Pennsylvania newspaper caught my eye because it compares a Thai artist to eccentric underground comic legend R. Crumb.

It's about the Carnegie exhibit, which has selected more than 400 works, including a film installation from Chiang Mai artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. The article touches on the commonalities that the curator found in the different works.

Their works are made of such things as oil on linen, ink on paper and canvas stretched on welded steel. The artists -- both men and women, young and old -- are from as far away as Thailand and as near as central Pennsylvania.
But the curator of the 2004-05 Carnegie International sees a commonality in the more than 400 works that were selected for the survey of contemporary art, which begins Oct. 9 at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh ...

Consider Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, of Chiang Mai, Thailand. In one of her works, a film called Thai Medley, Rasdjarmrearnsook sings and reads a poem. Then there's cartoonist Robert Crumb ... Characters in his strips talk to God.

It seems Crumb and Rasdjarmrearnsook have little in common, but "they have one thing in common -- a spiritual search," Hoptman said.

The installation will include Crumb's drawings, strips and notebooks, and it marks the first time the Carnegie International will display comic art.

Andrew Carnegie's goal when he established the exhibit was broad enough that the installations continue to meet his ideals, Hoptman said.

"The Carnegie International reflects on the current discourse, but it also moves the discourse forward," she said.