Born 1981 / Works in Thailand

Tintin Cooper, an artist of Thai and English parentage, graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in London in 2004. She makes videos and large mixed media installations. Her works have been exhibited and screened in England, New York and Istanbul and at the Tadu Contemporary Art and Siam Art Space in Bangkok. She has appropriated footage from Hollywood movies in her video works in order to deconstruct ideologies of war and heroism. Her installations entirely reconstruct our relationship to space; in 2007 she created an enormous ‘slum’ in Bangkok’s PSG Art Gallery – a solo show following an artist residency at Silpakorn University.

Welcome to Your Mind, 2008
Installation (motors, wood, corrugated metal)
Size: dimensions variable, (approx. 2.4 h x 2 w x 12l metres)

The Work:  When people say the word “fear” they often think of something like a scene out of a movie- ghosts, tyrannosaurus-rex, buildings collapsing, apocalypse and so forth, but in reality, the fears we live through are on a daily basis (like worrying about what others think, being scared of financial instability, conditionings that our culture may have given us about people, disabilities, illnesses) and can be just as destructive, leading to racism, prejudices, stigma.  In Buddhist Thailand, you can’t conquer your ego, but only accept it is there, watch it and laugh at it.  Likewise, this installation is not about ‘conquering’ fear but about letting go and seeing the absurdity, by laughing- this is the best remedy.