羅莎琳・克勞斯（Rosalind Krauss）在〈超現實主義的攝影情狀〉（The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism）文中描述了攝影的指示功能（indexical function）與其位置，為超現實藝術實踐做了最佳舉證，本論文以此為基石，同時檢視泰國當地對於攝影的藝術位置與被預設的指示性質在態度上的改變，作為從現代到當代的典範移轉之例子。從作為藝術表現的媒材到被認可為藝術，攝影在此一轉變中扮演了重要的角色，一方面，攝影以藝術形式被接受反映了在合理性的層層重疊網絡之中的發展與隨之而來在後冷戰期間國際性的教育與展覽機會的提升；另一方面，當用渴望追求不同來標注自身，攝影的情狀——或其本體論——將當代給概念化。藉由檢視許多當代泰國藝術家的作品，本文主張攝影將「光學無意識」（optical unconscious）視覺化，讓人可以滿足對於同時性的追求，並點再現出作為主張同時性的方法有其侷限。
當代泰國藝術、當代東南亞藝術、雙年展、攝影、記錄文獻
This paper takes as a point of departure, Rosalind Krauss' essay 'The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism', in which she describes the relationship between photography's indexical function and its position as the example par excellence of Surrealist artistic practice. In the same way, this paper examines changing attitudes in Thailand towards photography's artistic status and presumed indexicality as paradigmatic examples of a transformation from the modern to the contemporary. Photography's crucial role in this shift is located in key alterations to the medium's functions and perceptions of its artistic legitimacy. On the one hand, the acceptance of photography as an art form reflects developments in imbricated networks of legitimation, occurring with the rise of international education and exhibition opportunities in the post-Cold War period. On the other hand, the conditions of photography itself, or rather its ontology, produce a conceptualisation of the contemporary as manifested in a desire for proximity with difference. In examining works by a number of contemporary Thai artists, I argue that photography's visualisation of the 'optical unconscious' allows one to fulfil this desire for contemporaneity, while also pointing to the limits of representation as a means of asserting coevality.
contemporary Thai art, contemporary Southeast Asian art, Biennales, photography, documentation
