Palm paints police

FOR PREYAWIT “Palm” Nilachulaka, frontman of pop-rock band Instinct, music is only part of the deal. His art extends to the visual arts too, as dramatically expressed once again in “Siam Rangers”, his solo exhibition at Subhashok the Arts Centre through September 10.
This is the fifth solo show for the 40-year-old singer-songwriter, and it’s completely different from the previous ones. He appears to have found a personal style that long eluded him.
“I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember, but I didn’t get passionate about music until I was in university,” says the man known as “Palm Instinct”.
University was Srinakharinwirot, where he majored in painting while humouring an uncle in the belief that architecture would be a well-paid profession. The family wasn’t art-oriented. His dad was a soldier, his mother a Thai Airways International executive. 

Preyawit “Palm” Nilachulaka

“I was lucky that my parents understood me,” he says. “Usually fathers who were soldiers order their sons to do the same, but my father was an exception to the rule.”
Palm was in high school when his mother introduced him to celebrated artist Chalermchai Kositpipat, who became his tutor and an important early influence. Palm was initially fond of Thai traditional painting.
“Ajarn Chalermchai was my idol in art, just as Artiwara ‘Toon Bodyslam’ Kongmalai was my idos in music. I tried to follow in his footsteps, especially the way he sketched and used colours, but as I grew older I began pursuing my own style.”
Palm’s first public exposure was in a group show, the 1996 Bua Luang Exhibition. He was involved in a few more before mounting the solo show “Body Parts” at Siam Center. Since then there have been “Roo-Mod-Tae-Man-Od-Mai-Dai” at Play- ground’s Play Gallery in 2006, “Side Line” at the Teo+Namfah in 2008, and “Endless Desire Hu! Hu! Hu!” at the Gossip Gallery in 2011.

Palm adjusts the helmet on his fibreglass cop sculpture.

Meanwhile, of course, there was music. 
Palm formed the band Girl, which released three albums on the Music Bugs label – the self-titled debut in 1999, “Showgirl” in 2001 and “Feel” as a farewell before his jump to GMM Grammy.
With Instinct, Palm released “Inner” in 2007, which generated the hit “Prod Song Khrai Ma Rak Chan Thee”, the soundtrack to the 2009 movie “Bangkok Traffic Love Story”, and “The End” in 2008, all under More Music, a subsidiary of GMM Grammy. 
In 2012 the band switched to Genie Records and enjoyed more success with “Endless”.
While the tunes might play off against his artwork and vice versa, Palm explains that there’s quite a distinction between his two means of expression. 
First, though, he had to find his way in the visual arts.
“When I look back now at my first solo show, I can see the concept was unclear. I had a yearlong blank before I began finding my own style. Then I had the chance to see more international art and realised how much I’d never seen. 
“I used to go to the university library – before the Internet got so widespread – and studied van Gogh and Monet. When the Internet came along, I was surprised by Chinese artists’ powerful use of colour, completely different from Thai art, and that stimulated my creativity. I wanted to try other art styles. The first Chinese artist who inspired me was Yue Minjun. All of a sudden I realised how much I preferred bright colours to darker tones. 
“Still, even after that discovery, it took me a long time to create my story, my content.”

Healthy sarcasm has always been a characteristic of Palm’s paintings.

Palm’s “story” turned out to be quite sexual in nature – “but with a sense of humour”, he laughs. He admits his bands’ groupies had a lot to do with it. 
“I didn’t focus on sexual intercourse or anything. It was more about going to motor shows not to see cars but pretty girls, or to pubs not to drink but meet beautiful ‘beer girls’.”
Still, the sexually charged nature of his paintings was in sharp contrast to his songs, which are usually about sweet love. Did the artwork hurt his image as a nice guy?
“I think my fans understood what I was interpreting in my paintings,” he says. “Every exhibition has its own story to tell. I’m usually ‘being me’ onstage, so the fans understand who I am. I can express extreme thoughts in art, but not in music.”

There is clearly no way this cop is going to catch that villain.

Palm’s fifth solo exhibition, “Siam Rangers”, is exploring a favourite theme of his, but charts new territory.
“I’ve blended the Japanese heroes, the Power Rangers, into my concept. The show’s mainly about police behaviour these days, the stories about them we see and hear every day.”
He’s got Bangkok’s finest in classic Power Rangers superhero poses, mighty defenders of the common man. It’s pretty amusing stuff.

Police strike dramatic poses in a painting inspired by the “Don’t Drink and Drive” campaign.

In one painting, which Palm explains has to do with the perennial “Don’t Drink and Drive” campaign, three police officers strike dramatic poses while holding, respectively, a breathalyser, a radar gun and an illuminated baton for directing traffic. 
There’s a pair of pictures showing suspects seemingly posing for mug shots, but they’re “scapegoats”, he says. The male figure certainly looks the part – he’s the Shocker from Marvel Comics and he’s wearing ram’s horns. The female figure has doffed a mask of unsure identity, which is also wearing a mask.
In still another piece, a policeman is furiously chasing a villain – but they’re both riding the same tandem bicycle, so capture remains forever just out of reach.
And finally there’s a depiction of four characters holding signs that identify them as a singer, farmer, lawyer and doctor, when clearly they’re not. “It’s like an unrealistic disguise,” Palm says. “Everybody knows they’re telling a lie.”

Spot the scapegoats in police mug shots.

The exhibition features more than 20 paintings and a life-size fibreglass sculpture of a cop. None of the pieces has a title or description. Palm spent over two years creating them, so maybe he ran out of time. 
The price tags, though, power-range from Bt100,000 to Bt280,000.
So what does it take to be a hero in Palm’s mind?
“Being a hero is doing the right thing, clearly and realistically,” he declares. 
And then he suggests that he’s finally found his “voice” in the visual arts. 
“No matter how my next exhibition is conceptualised, everyone will know my signature style – like the bright colours. It’s like my songs. The fans know the ones I’ve written, whether I’m playing with Instinct or Girl.”

Power up for art
“Siam Rangers” continues at Subhashok the Arts Centre through September 10, open daily except Monday from 10am to 5.30.
Lean more at (02) 662 0299 or www.SAC.gallery.