LEE WEN
JOURNEY OF A YELLOW MAN, 1992, LONDON

The chains gave the impression of social bondage, constraints and restrictions on the freedom of individuality, movcment, thought, actions, growth and behaviour. At the same time they were strongly linked together giving direction, continuity and security. The red colour implied a sense of urgency, danger, a sign for alertness and perhaps even blood-ties.

During the performance, the improvisation showed my reactions to these qualities of the chains. I needed them to give me security, comfort and direction. Yet I wanted to be free from them for by attaching myself to them I got entangled, tied down and restricted. The performance ended when I lined them up into a path and lighted up piecess of solid fuel between them forming a row of fire or light. The light or fire formed a circlc at the end of the path. I layed inside the circle and revolved in it. The fire alluded to truth and revolution for I believe, that to be free, we must go through a human revolution in ordcr to manifest a golden nature.

The riots subsidcd and curfew was lifted and wc began to see visitors again. Following discussion with participants and visitors, I decidcd to do a performance on Christmas day, responding to the surrounding land and social environment.

I startcd the performance painted once again as the yellow man and improvised with long red chains. The chains got entangled in itself and while I held them up they seemed to form the shape of a crucifix. I placcd them on the ground in front of our camp's gateway and annointed them with some blue pigments. I procccdcd to make a fire out of dried sun flower stalks, placing thcm in the shapc of a cross. I then laid myself in front of it stretched out likc a crucifix and stayed there till thc fire died out. Getting up I wcnt over to fecd a horse with wheat stalks. I had paid the thangka"(horse-chariot) man to givc his horse a day off as a show of sympathy for our animal friends. After that I went round to the back of our sleeping quarters where there were some wheat fields. I respond to the space, running, walking, crawling and pacing across thc files and rows of growing wheat on the fields. I then picked up two large coconut leaves doing a dance on the field and waiting for the sun to set. Just before sunset proceeded to walk on a rope bridge which I had prepared between two coconut trees. The bridge was located in such a way that when I walked on them , I gave the impression that I was walking above the fields and across the sunset.

Perhaps it was the beautiful sunset that really inspired me. We watched the sunset almost every evevning, stopping to carve as night falls. The performance ended with making of another fire, using dried sunflower stalks in the corner of the worksite and then covering it with slabs of stones

By being in the gallery as the ycllow man, daily between 11am to 7pm, I am working, contcmplating, creating and manipulating 8 long chains and 15 kg. of white rice grain. Each day I am also concentrating on one of my objects of desirc" trying to discover its significance through the performance. At 7 pm I proceed to thc substation garden where another pcrformance takes place improvising on that object of desire" which I had been concentrating on. Doing this pcrformance in a gallery over 5 days, it becomcs a creative ritual.

In addition to the chains which I have used before, I am also using rice to make, I have been able to identify universal values in the yellow man by elevating a personal meaning of ethnicity to that of the golden nature of man. The chains in many ways represent the socialisaton of individuals. On the onc hand society places restrictions, constraints, and bondage on us, but they also provide us with security, comfort, direction and continuity. Rice is the staple food of Asia. I wanted to equate die sacredness of rice to that of art and culture. I believe that art and culturc are an important aspect of our humanity. By using rice as an element in making art, I wish to draw attention to this importance. At the same time it also emphasises the basic necessity of rice in die pragmatic concrns of the Third World economies which view art as a dispendable luxury.

The use of the chains and ricc requires my getting on my hands and knecs, bringing me to a subservient, humple and more basic earthy spacc.

I also exhibited drawings, paintings, photographs and objects/sculptures of DESIRE" as part of the installation. The basic desire for everyone is that of happiness. However the pursuit of happiness bccomes distorted, distracted and discnchantcd by our encounters with the world. Ours is a different world and we face different problems, situations as well as opportunities in our present history of rapid progress and modcrnistion. Dcsirc is reflected from my personal expcrience and study in relationship to the society we live in.

The colour yellow, for example, had different meanings to these artists in Asia, the colour yellow is usually associated with many concrete things. The saffron robes of monks, temples, yellow rivers, emperor and king, skin. But in western and modern society yellow can have many abstract meanings like danger, hazards, confidential secrets, pornography vices.

Concrete House also doubles as the headquarters of EMPOWER, a women's support group founded by Chumpon's wife, Chantawipa Apisuk. With EMPOWER, Chantawipa has been helping women in the country's sex industry find alternative employment and also raising awarenes and greater understanding of AIDS.

In my installation, I was using 2 basic materials - hair and jasmine flowers. The hair was collected from Bangkok's male barber shops. While collecting the hair, I tried to distribute pamphlets and newsletters from EMPOWER and also getting to know Bangkok city and the people better.

Hair has different meanings to different people. For some it gives the allusion of death , as when the body rots to dust, hair is left intact. Hair also can imply sensuousness, vanity, beauty, karma. The most surprising thing was to find that hair and self is the same word in Thai language. Jasmine have some similar meanings in some ways. Women like to put jasmine in their hair, it gives a sensuous aroma and some made into perfumes. It is also used for worship in temples and funera

`Libido' is usually associated to sexual lust in popular psychology. However the word in Freudian usage could also imply the will to power and a hunger for life and human fulfillment. In Buddhist thinking, it is essential to discard the falsely conditioned self in order to achieve nirvana or the perfection of wisdom. As suggested in the quotation, isolation from society is highly recommended. I find this extremely severe and difficult as man is a social animal.

On the floor in front of the pile of hair and jasmine flowers is placed a few books on AIDS from Empower's library and a dead chicken, plucked off its feathers. They are on some sheets of banana leaf like offering of food, we find in some Thai temples.