They Treat Art WORKERS Fancy, Too...
Published October 28, 2022 · 14:51 · 113,297 views
About This Video
Van travels to the Bangkok Art Biennale with Tom Sachs and turns the trip into an examination of what it means to be an art worker rather than an artist. The distinction is the engine of the video. You build the crates, you hang the pieces, you troubleshoot the installation. Then you eat at the same table as the collectors. I love that.
The nearly fifteen-minute runtime allows Van to stay inside the experience rather than rushing to a thesis. Bangkok operates as both exotic backdrop and mirror, reflecting the strangeness of being flown across the world to do manual labor in a silk-glove context. The Tom Sachs Studio relationship, decades long, built on shared obsession with craft and protocol, provides the subtext. The real story here isn't the luxury. It's what it looks like when an art worker has been doing it long enough to hold the paradox without flinching.
Transcript
thank you to betterhelp for sponsoring this episode betterhelp is the world's largest therapy platform we went to
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better help for this trip for this job I am not an artist I am worker I am here to do a job I am here to make
videos like a wedding photographer maybe okay so this is the artist resentment
and gratitude diagram I am here to do a job Pat is an artist but on this trip Pat is not an artist on this trip Pat is here to do a
job as well got on this trip Pat is an art worker like
me Pat's job is to get the damn boat finished my fifth trip to Asia my fifth
business class trip how much does that cost I don't even know who's paying for
this I never do [Music] Tom is the artist on this trip Tom has a piece in the banal the bonal the banial Tom has a piece in the big art
show Tom is the reason I'm here the reason Pat's here we're here for
Tom Tom told someone that we needed to be here and somebody some organization
paid for us to be here and took care of us business class
[Music] flight five-star hotel who the hell is paying for all this I'm the kind of man likes to know who's buying their drinks Lloyd it's not a matter that concerns you Mr torus at least not at this point
I am in a foreign city a city I've never been to a city I know nothing about a
city of cultural significance yes but for what I do not
[Music] know when you go on the boat [Music] I ordered the fish and chips and I think that may have been disrespectful because Uncle T he was
introduced to me as Uncle T Uncle T owns this joint and he's arranged private room and a big spread for
us this week Uncle T and others want to treat us like big shots even us art
workers Uncle T might be one of the people who's paying for all this best fishing chips I've ever had in
my life chaman is an artw worker too she has a PHD she could run IBM without chaman none of us would be here not even
the artist not even Tom chaman made it all happen even the
hotel and the business class tickets I bet the work is the work and it's the same everywhere on this trip it's the
riding and shooting part of the video making process shooting on the damn boat the
rocking cramped boat I couldn't wait to get off the boat and I couldn't wait to get back on
[Music] it the rocking stayed with us when we were on Shore the boat is why we're all here the boat is why Sax's team is here why Pat
and I and sax are here [Music] the boat is Tom's piece for the banial the damn boat Sach said the boat
is a vessel for interdimensional travel and he explained what interdimensional travel
means it means the boat can take us from a working man's boat yard one dimension
to a party at a private Mansion another completely different dimension this is a private
residence that's what Sach says the boat does and I agree with him Nong and Quan will travel to a
different dimension with us too Nong and Quan are rivermen but this week they are
artor river men they are artworkers like Pat me they Dawn the uniform just like us I have been to the these things all over the world but it doesn't occur to me that I am a part of them because at
these things I am not an artist I am an art worker I am a guest in a foreign land in a foreign Dimension and these people these Thai people and these foreigners
to Thailand like me they are so good to us the movie stars and the pop stars and the art stars of Thailand are at this party with
us and this crowd welcomes all to this crowd everyone is
wonderful the damn boat is not finished yes I love Amazon and I love Home
Depot but this is special to me we are art World workers so we get to see this
[Music] too every night at dinner every night a party I skip the parties when I can they have these bals all over the world they're sort of like film festivals they take over cities in a good way
I don't get the art I don't think anyone does I think we're all pretending maybe I get only one
artist eventually the boat will be in this show at this building but now it's
still in the water in front of the hotel [Music] this is my favorite way to experience a new place my favorite way to experience
a new place is to have a job there in Bangkok this week I am not a tourist I
am a worker and I am very grateful for that this was the best part of the
trip that's an awesome house that's where I would live that would be my studio right
[Music] there Tom's boat is little so it can go places the tourist boats [Music] can't we our war away we're our war away we're War away we
some is that polish huh chaman is from Bangkok but she said she had never seen this part of the city
until today until Tom brought us here with his boat she told us that the
temples the ubiquitous Bangkok temples served as community centers the markets
were near the temples there were so many temples that I stopped shooting them but maybe that was a
mistake maybe the temples account for the ease Bangkok was easy if you want to see Asia for the
first time and you don't know where to go I suggest Bangkok maybe it's the presence of the
Buddhists that provides this sort of ease maybe the ease comes from these sacred spaces sprinkled all over town
[Music] I think I got the better end of the deal on this trip and I think this man is the reason there was money for business
class travel and a five-star hotel I don't know for sure but he's my number one
suspect opy nun behind the not loves art and he loves Bangkok well up I was just
saying that this guy Anderson in the N late 19th century I guess um came here fell in love with the place and started
trade between Scandinavia he's a Danish guy and and he built this building that one that's that's right next to the
Oriental the two the hotel and the building next to it the beautiful one um and started this trade peaceful trade
agreement and understand that's been going on for over 100 years and and that area became the first area for
fats it's a long history of the Oriental and that's why you see when we go there and we'll have a drink in the bamboo bar
yeah where Joseph Conrad hung out did they see pictures of all these of all these white guys writing their masterpieces and this River was a great
source of inspiration and ainan told us of the historical friendship between the west and Thailand or sayam as they used
to call it about Denmark and Sweden and sayam and trade and friendship not colonialism he didn't mention
colonialism or exploitation opinan spoke of trade and
friendship and the Bittersweet experience of these artworker Journeys is that we get to make great friends
only for a week or so in beautiful and extraordinary and demanding circumstances and then we're gone for
knows how long but luckily for some of us we are not only art workers but artists in our own right and hopefully we can convey in
our best work our feelings of gratitude to the chaman and the uncle te's and the
aons and the boat workers and the Scandinavians and the people of Thailand and the artists and the artworkers who
came before us to make this work possible this week on the patreon
archival videos with director's commentary on my patreon right there the link is right there
Products & Tools Mentioned
- BetterHelp essential — sponsor
- Amazon mentions — mentioned casually
- Home Depot mentions — mentioned casually
People Referenced
Tom Sachs, Joseph Conrad, Apinan