My country upside down

Politicians, in having fun with facts, would have us believe that what is true is also false. Surely it can’t be both, artist Sutee Kunavichayanont argues in his new exhibition “Dee Pen Baa!” (“Crazily Good!”)

Number 1 Gallery is adorned with wooden signs inscribed in Thai and English – in the style of old-fashioned movie posters or bumper stickers for trucks – with carefully selected figures of speech and film titles alluding to Thailand’s socio-political malaise, not always obliquely.

“I love democracy but hate majority rule,” one of them says. Among the others:
“Alright! I’m marginal.”
“People is big deal, nation is trifle.”
“Sooner or later, it is painful anyway.”
“Honest fault, innocently fraud with honest intention.”

While teasing others, Sutee also includes a little self-mockery: “I love art but hate the artist.”

Like its title, says the 46-year-old Silpakorn University art instructor, the exhibition “can be foolish and insane, and at the same time bizarre or fantastic. It’s like our country, which is now in a stream of inversion.”

You’ll see the titles of movies from the 1950s and ’60s like “Creature from the Black Lagoon” and “Attack of the Crab Monster”, and of Thai erotic novels such as “Vimarn Chimplee” (“Sex Paradise”) and “Sao Hysteria” (“Hot Chick”).

A lot of Hollywood films made during the Cold War had science-fiction plots, he notes, with a recurring theme being extraterrestrial aliens living disguised and indistinguishable among humans. “I think we now live in the same sort of confusing and fearful state,” Sutee says.

Thailand really is upside down – as commentators often lament – in the form of a big plywood cut-out of the country suspended on a chain from the ceiling.

It’s red on one side and yellow the other. You get the picture. (Sutee doesn’t indicate any preference.)

Thailand’s current fragility is underscored in three hazardously delicate geographical paper depictions of the country. He’s scored the shape of the country in sheets of paper and let the cut-out section fall forward, so that it dangles below, upside down, by a sliver.

“Reversed Motherland (Upside Down)” dangles in red. “My Motherland” is black. “Reversed Motherland (Yellow-Red)” is a yellow sheet with red on the reverse, so the hanging part is red. It looks like the Kingdom has thrown up.

“Our country is in utter disorder,” Sutee says. “We’re being shaken up by the political conflict, all the deception, and natural perils as well. Thailand is being overturned by both sides – intentionally or unintentionally.”

Figurative art finds its place among the banners and geography in a set of 10 playful, satirical paintings in elaborate golden frames, even if the pictures are nearly overwhelmed by surrounding text.

The “Massage Attack” series includes stereotyped depictions of a Thai boxer, a woman in traditional chong kraben (lower-body wrap) and pha thab (breast cloth) and a farang in a business suit with the idealistic facial features of an ancient Greek statue. They are indeed giving each other massages, and rather brutal ones at that.

“Massage Attack (For Thai Lady)” has the bulky farang perched heavily atop the petite Thai woman. The boxer turns the foreigner’s head upside down with a mighty blow in “Massage Attack (Farang’s Head)”. (And the woman gives his face a massage with her feet in another image – you won’t see that in any massage parlour we know of.)

“Several techniques in Thai traditional massage employ hard pressure and stretching,” Sutee observes, straight-faced. “It’s akin to self-defence or martial arts. The massage might be painful to some people, and yet provide deep relaxation to others.”

Yes, he admits, “I’m teasing about being Thai, about the autocracy and the pace at which we’re progressing.” Each viewer’s personal beliefs can be his guide in forming relationships among any or all of the pictures and words.

The figurative paintings come with a do-it-yourself “copier”. An old-fashioned wooden school desk sits in front of each one with the image etched into the desktop. Blank paper and coloured pencils are provided so you can make your own rubbing.

Sutee has been developing his rubbings for more than a decade. In the 2000 group show staged near the Democracy Monument to commemorate Pridi Banomyong’s birth centenary, he set out 14 desks for a “History Class”. Each had a different authoritarian decree or speech carved in the top, together representing a political history that Sutee believes has been selectively expunged from the textbooks.

There were also 14 desks at a 2003 Silpakorn University group show, arranged in front of a screen on which you could watch Sutee – wearing a traditional teacher’s uniform – trying to instil some culture and manners in his students. And his 2005 show “Stereotyped Thailand” included a mock classroom whose desktops, with a little rubbing, would yield a picture of a female student!

Mad art
<< “Crazily Good!” continues until April 21.
<< Number 1 Gallery in the basement of the Silom Galleria on Silom Road is open daily except Sunday from 10 to 7.
<< Find out more at (02) 630 2523, (083) 445 8333 and www.Number1Gallery.com.