“The Veil of Maya 4” reenacts the fetishistic charisma of Thai scrapbooks from the 1970s. Using the facsimile of a naughty but incomplete school notebook found in a flea market in Bangkok, Doan na Champassak decides to reanimate its narratives by filling out the empty pages with original cutouts from his fruity collection of adult magazines from the same period. While exploring the blurred boundaries (the “veils”) between facsimile and original content, the artist questions the dichotomy of freedom of expression and pornography in Thailand, and transforms the traces of an anonymous and repressed sexual expression into a hypnotizing “ars erotica”.

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“The Veil of Maya 4” is the fourth of 7 serial artists’ books published since 2018 in a very limited edition of 35 copies each. Taking its title from a common metaphor defining the state of perennial illusion in which people are trapped, “The Veil of Maya” ongoing project deals with the duality of enchantment-disenchantment from 7 different perspectives. In this editorial experiment, photography is often mixed with appropriated materials from various sources, both textual and visual, creating a profusion of eclectic scenarios.

35 copies / 64 pages

24 x 17 cm

Each copy has original newly-added cutouts on the last 8 pages as well as a unique cover

September 2022