Hoontown: International guerrilla street arts insurgency infiltrates Sam Sen
Guru magazine, 2006
“We’re forest mongrels,” says American performance artist Duskin Drum, talking about himself and his brother. “We grew up with no electricity, running water or TV. We played in the forest and acted out stories about monsters and animals. We did it as street performance all over the US, playing multiple characters with costumes, masks and puppets.”
After touring southern Chinese villages with his street performances earlier this year, Duskin met up in in Bangkok with Adam Ende, an American puppeteer who had just completed a community arts project in Taiwan.
They met up with Kae Dum [Black Sheep], the Thai marionette troupe of Wasin “Soei” Mitrsuphan, Phasuthee “Top” Chulanakoset and Bundit “Noo” Muangphat at the Rajata Art House, a community arts collective at Sam Sen Soi 5 managed by Wilasine Thongsri, and began planning Hoontown, a three-day community arts and puppet festival, from the Thai word “hoon” meaning “puppet”.
“China was intense,” says Duskin. “Nobody had every seen anything like us — white guys in bizarre costumes, masks and puppets. Kids laughed, adults freaked, old women joined in.”
“The Kae Dum [Black Sheep] guys are my soul brothers,” says Adam. “There are so many talented Thai puppeteers and performers who don’t get much attention. We wanted to introduce them to their global colleagues.”
Since late November, puppeteers, performance artists and musicians have been arriving from New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Taipei, Singapore, Vancouver and France, as well as Chiang Mai, Nakhorn Si Thammarat, Phetchburi and all over Bangkok.
Now, a three-meter demented pink cow head on Sam Sen Soi 5 watches over an underwater seascape waiting for repair after being chewed by dogs at Wat Sampraya. Inside Rajata, 25-30 artists are writing songs and scripts, drinking Singha beer and making masks, life-size trees, giant bugs and other bizarre papier-mache creatures out of Siam City Cement bags. Spontaneous parties erupt, as when 10 monkeys with drums, an accordion, electric guitar and a squid cart wandered down to Khao San.
“Community art is about bringing people and arts together,” says Wasin. “About 10 years ago around Seattle and Vancouver, a group of artists decided they didn’t want to work alone in studios and galleries. They started workshops and festivals like Islewilde and Illuminares to get non-artists into making and being part of art, not just looking at it.”
Three years ago, Taipei property developer Gordon Hsieh hired Adam, the former Islewilde director, to organize the Dream Parade and Festival for his property development the Dream Community. Drawing on this history, Hoontown is Thailand’s first international community arts festival, involving many veterans of the Dream Parade and the Seattle and Vancouver scenes.
Puppets and avatars, storytellers and modern media
“When people hear ‘puppet’, they think of boring museum pieces, or cutesy stuff made for kids,” says Mark Tayangkanon of D-Fusion, an integrated media and entertainment company. “But computer animation and games are all about manipulating a virtual character, the avatar. It’s puppetry in the modern age — people just don’t recognize it.” Mark should know. He’s the producer of Gamer’s Zone, a TV show dedicated to computer games (www.gamerszone.tv).
“Computer games are bigger than movies now, animation is very popular, and even more traditional puppets are in places you don’t usually think of, like the Lion King on Broadway in New York. Once you get beyond your past ideas and start actually checking out today’s puppets, you see how cool and interesting they can be. Think about Gollum in Lord of the Rings — that was one funky puppet.”
Puppetry is lodged deep within the history of the common man’s voice, intertwined with immediate and genuine expressions of emotion from everyday life. It does not take time to understand and does not seek to be understood over any lengthy period. Throughout history, puppetry has been the quintessential medium for self expression, a poor man’s art providing tremendous freedom
In Europe, the early Christians used puppets to enact Biblical passages. By the 15th century, puppets became more grass-roots, laced with vulgar humor, a medium for criticizing society’s problems and turning them into fun spectacles. After Cromwell banned public theater in England in 1642, puppetry became a rogue art with secret performances behind closed doors, showing discontent with society. You could throw a pie at your puppet boss and laugh — throwing a pie at your actual boss might not have been such a good idea.
Asian puppetry goes back more than 2,000 years. The first Thai puppets are at least 400 years old. Whereas Western puppetry explored feelings and social structure, Asian puppetry focused on philosophical and ethical themes. Puppets were a spiritual means of discussing culture, a medium for the heavens to enter our world. Puppeteers were storytellers, telling myths that entertained, but also tried to explain the world and provide moral guidelines and paths to happiness. Modern media, on the other hand, is concerned primarily with selling products and making profit.
“TV, movies, pop music, advertising, fashion and all that glamour and glitz stuff is the commercial arts world,” says Top of Kae Dum. “But there are other art worlds. There’s the high-brow academic world of galleries and cultural performance, and there’s the street world of underground music, guerrilla film and street theater.”
“People say the commercial guys are too money-hungry to be creative, nobody understands what the academic guys are talking about, and the street guys are a mess. But when street innovation and academic depth meet a viable business model — that’s magic.
“Unfortunately in Thailand, there isn’t much interaction between the worlds. The commercial world mostly copies trends from other countries instead of looking to the Thai streets. The irony is that the trends they copy started in the foreign streets. Think about hip hop. It started getting big here a few years ago, after it was mainstream in the US, but it began on the streets more than 30 years ago.”
Is there room for puppetry in trendy Bangkok?
There are signs of change. Indie music and film are getting commercial attention through events like the Fat Festival and various film festivals, but puppetry is a harder sell. Music and film are still big businesses, but puppets rely on imagination, dreams and ingenuity. Puppeteers know their chances for fame and fortune are tiny, but they do it anyway, for love of their art.
After the fireworks and glitter of giant mall openings, colossal fashion shows and product launch parties, perhaps Thai people are ready for something more down-to-earth, more personal, more human. Some companies have shown interest in the grass-roots and building community. Both Boon Rawd Brewery, makers of Singha Beer, and Siam City Cement, makers of Eagle cement and Conwood building materials, helped finance Hoontown, and UBC provided a month of free publicity. If support like this continues, perhaps we’ll see innovations and trends starting in Thailand and spreading to the rest of the world instead of being imported only.
HOONTOWN 2005 will run on Friday, 30 December from 3:30 PM-10:00 PM; on Saturday, 31 December from 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM; and on Sunday, 1 January from 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM at SAM SEN SOI 5, at the Rama 8 Bridge boat pier, by Wat Sampraya. Take Chao Phraya Express Boat to the Rama 8 Bridge pier (#14), admission is free. For more information, see www.hoontown.com