Exhibition/event has ended.
Ramavania: Lord of Shadows
The 5th Floor (Hanazono Alley)
Finished
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Artists
Anon Chaisansook, Kosuke Nagata, Nanut Thanapornrapee, Theerapat Wongpaisarnkit, Tomoko Sato
Folklore says that a vampire’s image cannot appear in mirrors. Be it because they have no souls or a more interesting theory says that mirrors back then are made from polished silver, a holy substance that deters evil. Perhaps that is why they can appear on film. How ironic when one considers that vampires are a form of time-based medium or rather one that resists time itself. They often occupy the position of a stranger, they look like us, even think like us yet they are foreign. However, one cannot forget that a vampire cannot enter unless it is allowed, invited.
A specter is haunting us — the specter of colonialism. All the lands of the world have unknowingly entered into this haunting, whether they have directly been colonized or not, such is the case with Thailand and Japan. Some proclaimed that the age has long past us and some are in the midst of it, regardless one cannot deny how the specter lingers. It has evolved to make itself less distinguishable but no matter how many garments it changed it still operates in the dark. Modes of governance thought long since dead have merely adapted to fit in with the times, a secular veneer to once obvious forms of mythical violence, from brutal persecution to parasitic exploitation.
Modern vampires (Bram Stoker’s, John William Polidori’s) appeared in the popular conception during the late early modern era (1800s) as the manifested anxieties of state centralization and new notions of exploited labor through industrialization. The prey is no longer dead but sucked dry, a continual and persistent violence to a regime that proposes modernity yet retains the character of the noble aristocrat now turned bourgeois. A vampire is always a conservative force, resisting change, it prides itself in its history and those it has turned. The unrelenting desire for immortality and the abandonment of the ceaseless march of time have left them as mere forms for the undead but the image.
"Ramavania: Lord of Shadows" is a foray into the creation of such entities through geopolitical forces in Asian history during the age of colonization and industrialization. Thailand and Japan’s response to encroaching Western powers through attempts at modernization runs parallel to one another. Both hinging their consolidation of a nation not only through technological advancements but through reconfiguring their relationships with their supernatural entities, deities, and vampires. The bargain for independence is paid with an auto-imperialistic turn, a self-colonization, and re-identification of nationhood, where individuals become Gods and some men never die.
A specter is haunting us — the specter of colonialism. All the lands of the world have unknowingly entered into this haunting, whether they have directly been colonized or not, such is the case with Thailand and Japan. Some proclaimed that the age has long past us and some are in the midst of it, regardless one cannot deny how the specter lingers. It has evolved to make itself less distinguishable but no matter how many garments it changed it still operates in the dark. Modes of governance thought long since dead have merely adapted to fit in with the times, a secular veneer to once obvious forms of mythical violence, from brutal persecution to parasitic exploitation.
Modern vampires (Bram Stoker’s, John William Polidori’s) appeared in the popular conception during the late early modern era (1800s) as the manifested anxieties of state centralization and new notions of exploited labor through industrialization. The prey is no longer dead but sucked dry, a continual and persistent violence to a regime that proposes modernity yet retains the character of the noble aristocrat now turned bourgeois. A vampire is always a conservative force, resisting change, it prides itself in its history and those it has turned. The unrelenting desire for immortality and the abandonment of the ceaseless march of time have left them as mere forms for the undead but the image.
"Ramavania: Lord of Shadows" is a foray into the creation of such entities through geopolitical forces in Asian history during the age of colonization and industrialization. Thailand and Japan’s response to encroaching Western powers through attempts at modernization runs parallel to one another. Both hinging their consolidation of a nation not only through technological advancements but through reconfiguring their relationships with their supernatural entities, deities, and vampires. The bargain for independence is paid with an auto-imperialistic turn, a self-colonization, and re-identification of nationhood, where individuals become Gods and some men never die.
Schedule | Jul 3 (Wed) 2024-Aug 4 (Sun) 2024 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | ¥500 | ||||
| Venue | The 5th Floor (Hanazono Alley) https://the5thfloor.org/  | ||||
| Location | 5F Hanazono Alley, 3-3-9 Ikenohata, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0008 | ||||
| Access | 3 minute walk from exit 2 at Nezu Station on the Chiyoda line, 10 minute walk from the Ikenohata exit of Keisei Ueno Station on the Keisei Main line, 11 minute walk from the Yamashita exit of JR Ueno Station. | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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