We all learn to be vulgar in Surasi Kusolwong's market. In thinking about his extended installations, the idea of fun inevitably arises. The purpose of this essay is to show that there are more complex ideas behind this Thai artist's lively, good-humoured work, but that's stating the obvious, for operating beneath the fun lies an economy that is alternative to the market as we understand it.

Like many of his contemporaries, Kusolwong always works with a given space - a museum or gallery most often, but at times the outdoors, and even an airport in one instance. In this space he sets up tables, covering their tops with stretched fabrics of solid colours. Sometimes scaffoldings and poster boards go up as accompaniment and a shack may be added. Once the temporary set up is done, with utmost care and with certain sculptural sensibilities, Kusolwong stages hundreds of imported goods, which he previously shopped for at an open market in Bangkok and shipped to the exhibition site. What gets laid out, stacked up, and displayed are mostly mass-produced, gaudy household items, ranging from T-shirts to strainers, from plastic superhero masks to plastic tiny stools. In the centre of the bazaar, a transparent Plexiglas moneybox is placed. Video projections of Thai-pop karaoke and a recording of previous works may supplement the display. A vision of chaotic plenitude is created by the arrangements of flat images and round objects.

The opening of Kusolwong's 'market' is a high-energy but well-orchestrated madness, an unruly unravelling. Even if you haven't been to one, anyone who has seen a newly opened mega-retail store or mall already knows what it is like. With mixed music thumping