Ken Khun
สีชมพู Pink, 2020
Single channel video, 20:45 min

สชีมพู Pink seeks to find space from within dominant narratives and generate new structures and modes of expression. It’s a position that opens up alternative territories, illuminating the power, knowledge and joy that reside at the margins. This work assembles a matrix between my heritage and personal experiences to undermine the power of mass media and challenge the dominance of Western and heterosexual culture.

With the rise of the internet and its multiple social-media platforms, a phantasmagoria – by which I mean an ever-present digital media offering up a bombardment of deceptive illusions – produced by capitalist consumerism promotes Western normalising ideologies.

In the context of the internet, capitalist strategies exploit users' discontents by manipulating desire through luxury, glamour and eroticism. This conceptual foundation is informed through the works of twentieth-century Marxist theorist Guy Debord. Despite the difference in context, with advancement in technology and its pervasiveness, Debord’s observations and critique remain relevant to contemporary socio-political dynamics.

In an attempt to expose the phantasmagoria, the work employs a kind of culture-jamming or diversion that subverts internet imagery by digitally manipulating pixels to provide insights into commodity fetishism, the policing of appearance and construction of norms, and the apparent contradiction of social alienation in an era of hyper-connectivity.

In response to the research and process, the outcome for this work formed a collision of visuals between Eastern and Western contests. Through these disruptive strategies, imagery implemented by the media is repurposed to construct an entirely new context, therefore circumventing its power and influence. The integration of Eastern elements creates a juxtaposition with Western ideologies in an attempt at deterritorialization, allowing for a shift away from a mainstream visual landscape. As a minor position it is a process of becoming and operates from within dominant enculturation to occupy space differently.By disrupting the dominance of Euro-heterocentric ideas of lifestyles and success, the work empowers minority viewpoints.

Ken Khun is an artist and graphic designer based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Shifting between art and design-orientated practices, Khun creates installation, publication, sound-scapes, textiles and video. He is driven to open up a hybrid space of Thai and Western culture mixes that undermines the predominance of one narrative over the other. He holds an MFA (First Class) and a BFA Graphic Design from Whitecliffe.

Selected shows: Beyond Boarders, Beresford Square. Golden, Comet Project Space. Garden of Memories, UXBridge Arts and Culture.