Tyler Hallet
Bangkok, Thailand

‘When the Borders Started Closing’
from [too much/not Enough] series

Instagram @tylerjamesbangkok

My name is Tyler Hallett and I am an American, queer artist currently in Bangkok where I lived for many years.
While in lockdown and stuck in the city, I am facing the changes of my whole life where I live in Bangkok and have a small company in China, all that I have worked for is in question. And I have had anxiety about my visa. As gay marriage is not legal here, as the borders were closing, I didn’t know what was going to happen was scared to lose my boyfriend and my two dogs, or rather, forced to leave Thialand and return to the USA. With my right to exist in question, the entire situation pointed to the glaring unfairness and injustices in various aspects in all societies. With such stress and worry, I have turned my art room in Bangkok into my escape and working on creating an installation and paintings and will include some video performances coming up over the next few days/weeks/months. As I am reacting to the situation of COVID-19 and being locked down away from my home country, these recent works represent both escape through art, but also my desire to pick up the pieces of what is left over to create something new. As part of a series I have collected all my garbage from 2017-2018 and have been making art with it since. And now, I am working to transform the entire workspace into a new realm made from the old. We have all the ideas and knowledge we need, the post-modern issue is still learning how to put the pieces of the puzzle back together again.
As a queer artist, I am just as concerned with fantasy as I am with reality, and use technology and art to create my inner fantasy into this reality to be part of shaping more queer and sustainable realities. The entire series will become a show called [too much / not Enough] I would love to share some of the current work as it is happening and being created daily.”