CUT2010: Parallel Universe, a new exhibition of Southeast Asian artists, explores perceptions and realities through the tilted perspectives of photography. Some of the works left me completely cold. But I did like Birdpayers, an on-going multi-site project by Sara Nuyetemans and Arya Pandjalu that combines performance, exhibitions and talks. By representing four major religions, Judaism, Catholicism, Hinduism and Islam through bird houses shaped as a church, a synagogue, a mosque and an Hindu temple and then putting them as mask on the heads of people standing next to each others, the two artists seem to be talking about religious harmony. Hard to say what this is about, but the four strange-looking protagonists surely challenge perception and amuse at the same time. I also liked the visually arresting works of Tanapol Kaewpring (Thailand), who places transparent glass cube in natural and urban environments as a metaphor for the systems that constrain us. Inside the boxes are fire, smoke, light, water, forces of nature that have the capacity for great change, but can also be controlled.
