Spectrosynthesis II: Exposure of Tolerance
Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

A massive exhibition of LGBTQ art, “Spectrosynthesis II: Exposure of Tolerance” was the sequel to the 2017 iteration staged by the Hong Kong-based Sunpride Foundation at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei. Featuring 58 artists working in a range of media, “Spectrosynthesis II” was loose and inclusive in its purview. Although it purported to be about queerness in Asian contexts, it sometimes felt more like a roll call of queer Asian artists, since the exhibition included works ostensibly unrelated to queerness, such as a minimal brick painting by Maria Taniguchi that seemed out of place in the often hyper-flamboyant presentation. Further confusing the matter was the inclusion of heteronormative painter Angkrit Ajchariyasophon, whose rainbow-colored polyptychs hung prominently in the spiral rotunda of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. Titled Celebrated Phenomenal of Colors (2010–19), the work was inspired not by the pride flag but by Isaac Newton's light spectrum experiments—evidence that even a coincidental connection with queer culture was sufficient to merit inclusion.