A white unadorned mask, worn back-to-front in unorthodox fashion, rises from the ground and levels an inscrutable gaze upon the audience. A consummate performance of Chui Chai, a piece of traditional dance choreography, commences with the dancer facing away from the audience and towards the back of the stage of Jitti Chompee’s Miscellany Of Khon.
Inspired by the delicate flowers attached to the furious mask of the demon, Thosakan, Jitti highlights the surprising beauty of this paradoxical vision to lead audiences into a re-examination of the flower’s duality as a symbol of Thosakan’s love and his imminent death. Jitti’s intention to turn the mask of tradition inside-out has wrought a radical departure from the conventions of khon, which was added to Unesco’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2018.
Jitti’s work explores the history,…
