Artists resist repression in Thailand, US

In late August, two seemingly unrelated events occurred in Thailand and the US.

- Sally Tyler

A photo dated Aug 7 shows a man at 'Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity', at the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre (BACC) in Bangkok.

(REUTERS/ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA)

The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) altered a major exhibit it had recently opened and, a few weeks later, the comedian Jimmy Kimmel was temporarily taken off the air by the ABC television network. These events are linked as forms of artistic repression and perhaps more concerning, as examples of the growing use of intermediary censorship by authoritarian regimes.

The exhibition Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machine of Authoritarian Solidarity, opened at the BACC in July. Soon after, the Centre was “warned that the exhibition may risk creating diplomatic tensions between Thailand and China’, as reported by Reuters.

The centre quickly removed the names and works of Hong Kong, Tibetan and Uyghur artists participating in the show. The exhibit’s curator, having been alerted that Thai police were looking for him and convinced that he was on the verge of deportation to Myanmar to face persecution by the junta, fled to the UK, where he is now seeking asylum.

On the other side of the world, Kimmel, a popular American comic late-night talk show host, was off the air from Sept 17 to 22, following public pressure from Trump Administration officials over the host's monologues criticising Donald Trump and other right-wing figures in the aftermath of the assassination of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk.