While in Singapore over winter break, Kim and I went to see the Singapore Art Museum.  Most of the images in this slide show are from their main exhibition, Thai Transience.  The whole time we were there I was thinking of how great an example of 'cultural connections' the work of these contemporary artists in Thailand would be to my IB students.  Each piece, in its very different way, spoke directly to Thai history, politics, and culture.  Each also drew heavily on traditional art forms. It was an amazing opportunity to see such a collection of contemporary Thai work; too often its easy to look at the arts and crafts that you see at every market in Thailand as the beginning and end of Thai art. This powerful exhibition will now be what I think of when I think of art in Thailand. The last few images in the slideshow below are from the rest of the museum, featuring artists from all over Asia. While I have less images from that set, there are some great pieces in there as well.  Speaking of things both Transient and Thai... I recently watched the acclaimed Thai film, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives. As with all good transient things, this film is less to be understood than to be experienced. Like the exhibition above, this film draws greatly on Thai culture, politics, and mythology. I read somewhere that it was sort of like a "Thai David Lynch Film", which doesn't really do it justice. That being said, I can't come up with the words to do it justice - so here's the trailer. If you're ok with films that answer none of the questions that they ask, I can't think of a better one.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Trailer) from filmswelike on Vimeo.