There’s an under-advertised superpower among many public health people. The people who investigate foodborne outbreaks can, even in their sleep, recite the names of every single variety of every single fruit and vegetable sold at the supermarket at any given time. Instead of saying “lettuce”, for example, you’ll hear “lettuce-iceberg-cos-butter-gem-oak?” Instead of “plum”, it’s “plum black-red-yellow-crog egg-dapple dandy”. “Oh no, it can’t be a Sheppard avocado. They’re not in season.” For mangoes, I’ve always been used to something along the lines of, “Calypso-Honey Gold-Keitt-Kensington Pride-R2E2?” And so it was an unexpected jolt when the options in Thailand became “Nam Dok Mai-Mahachanok-Tong Dam-Okrong?”

In case you hadn’t read last month’s blog post, I was in Bangkok to have dental work done. I’ve now returned to Sydney and I’m stubbornly trying to persist with a blog post for this month despite 30th June deadlines (for readers outside of Australia, this is the end of our financial year here). I thought I’d cut to the chase and tell you a bit about some of the art galleries I visited in Bangkok, as something a little bit different to the traditional temples-and-beaches travel blog posts about Thailand. My brain is slightly fried from work at the moment, so I’ll just write about these galleries in order of visit, rather than trying to get too creative with storytelling.

I first saw River City while I was on a Chao Phraya River ferry going past. (It was where I took that bumpy and not particularly well-composed photo of the gallery, below.) It’s not your usual art gallery. In fact, it’s like a shopping mall where all the shops are private galleries. There was a singer with a string ensemble performing in the main exhibition area when I visited. And there was an installation featuring a giant pair of bird eyes looking over that main space from the third floor, reminiscent of the Great Gatsby. I don’t know why, but for some reason I wasn’t expecting such an obvious western literary reference here in Thailand. The private exhibition spaces were also quite full of people, and it was tricky to take photos of artworks from far away enough to capture the entire piece without people walking in front of the camera. But there were also quite a few forlorn galleries lining the empty back corridors. I guess those were the cheaper spaces you exhibited in before you make it in the art world. But I don’t imagine the rent to be incredibly affordable in any of the spaces there. And the artworks themselves were definitely out of my budget, but I found many of them very relatable, even if I couldn’t read the descriptions in Thai.

That same weekend I went to the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, colloquially known as “the BACC” by most local expats I spoke to. Its circular, white interior gave off the familiar feel of an art gallery that was modern but not too edgy. The exhibition that was happening at the time was a showcase of young Thai talent. I was impressed with how almost everyone chose to create pieces about social issues that mattered to them: recent government-sponsored violence in southeast Asian countries, being forced to relocate to a big city to find employment but finding out that your parents at home were sick, how to be a good Buddhist in an increasingly capitalist society, the loss of birdsong in a big city. That same day, the lower floors were hosting the “Gypsy Fair” with many new age exhibitions and a huge tarot reading room. Or so I was told. I didn’t brave the crowds to go inside, although there was a part of me that wanted to see this interesting cultural phenomenon, and also to find out if there were any non-western methods being used. I had never seen so many teenagers line up to get tarot readings.

Warehouse 30 and ATT 19 were two galleries near each other. Warehouse 30 used to be a wartime storage space built in the 1940s, and now houses around 10 private galleries. ATT 19 was a standalone house gallery with exhibitions from many local artists. I must admit that I was a little bit apprehensive before entering either of them, because in Bangkok I usually passed off as a local, with everyone trying to speak to me in Thai before they realised that I didn’t understand a thing they were saying. And so I was worried that visiting on a weeknight, the galleries would be empty and I would have to have the unavoidable awkward conversation with whoever was looking after the collections that night. But as it turned out, the people of Bangkok loved their art and I was possibly one of the least conspicuous among many visitors. Visiting these independent galleries after the BACC made me realise the power of commercial pressure. The artworks at both these smaller galleries were bright and joyful, the kinds of things people would buy and display in their homes. There really wasn’t much that touched on those darker and heavier topics. (But don’t get me wrong, I did like a lot of the art I saw in both places.)

I had first visited Bangkok more than 10 years ago, but I wasn’t there for long and didn’t get to do much sightseeing. But even with the little that I saw, I was struck by the creativity I could see all around me, in the street art, crafts sold at the markets, advertisements. I thought that maybe the final gallery I went to, the sizeable Museum of Contemporary Art, would be a good place to end my explorations (at least until my next trip to Thailand, whenever that will be). I was hoping that it would help me to summarise different styles and time periods. But actually, it was probably my least favourite gallery – not to discount the fact that there were works there that I did genuinely enjoy viewing. I just found that overall, across all the galleries, there was a general undertone of objectifying women. The pictures of naked women were mostly balloon-chested with perfectly exaggerated curves, accompanied with titles like “My Dream.” Paintings depicting historical scenes kept illustrating situations where women just collectively forgot to wear tops when they were getting dressed that morning. And with all those works at the BACC that really tried to provoke and challenge, you couldn’t really argue that any of these naked women at the MOCA were there to push the boundaries of contemporary Thai art. And also, they overused gold picture frames. It annoyed me.

And on that slightly less happy note, I’ll sign off for the month before the clock ticks over midnight.