In How to Explain Art to a Bangkok Cock: Explained, Apinan Poshyananda shares the history and background of the artwork that featured in his first solo exhibition in Bangkok in 1985. The work consisted of video art, performance art and intermedia, and was unlike anything that the exhibition visitors had seen before. Apinan shares the political and historical context of the piece, remembering a time when, in practice, contemporary art in Thailand was radically evolving to include new and controversial mediums, but classical painting continued to dominate national art contests. Here, the individual and institutional reactions to How to Explain Art to a Bangkok Cock are chronicled, and the artist's influences are explored in great depth. From Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp to Nam June Paik and Tang Da Wu, the artists that influence and inspire Apinan span cultures and decades. Through his artwork, writing and curatorial practices, Apinan has endeavoured to explain contemporary art to audiences around the world, and How to Explain Art to a Bangkok Cock was the first step in his ongoing quest. Almost forty years after its launch, the work still sparks conversations about the meaning and role of contemporary art, both dividing and uniting the opinions of those who encounter it.