Narratives of love and mindfulness

 After years of running his own event-organising company, 51-year-old businessman Kma Sirisamphan has returned to his first love – art. A graduate of Silpakorn University’s Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts faculty, he is now sharing his art with the public by showcasing a series of bronze sculptures in the exhibition, “Weaving Narratives: Awaken”, at Subhashok The Arts Centre on Sukhumvit Soi 39.

“To me personally, art isn’t all about having exhibitions. It’s about life,” says Kma. “After I graduated, one of my teachers offered me a job at the university but I turned it down as I wanted to set up my own business and make enough money to support my parents. I had already started working while I was studying, painting the backdrops for commercials and music videos. Back then, I believed that money was everything.”

Kma adds that while he chose painting as his major, he was always passionate about sculpture. “But I felt that sculpting wouldn’t give me the freedom of thought that would allow me to broaden my techniques,” he explains.
Nonetheless, he chose to integrate sculpture and mixed media painting for his thesis, blending the painted work with the branches of a tree that continued to grow during the exhibition in the university’s gallery. “The work reflected human life and the environmental and social pressures we face,” he says, adding that the painting he created for his entrance examination was on a similar environmental and social theme: the burning of wood representing love destroyed by fire. The concept of fire also appears in “Weaving Narratives” in the form of a white man-like sculpture with a cracked dome that greets visitors at the door. 
The real world came knocking after graduation. “I wanted to find a job that would make me plenty of money so I could take care of my parents and do what I really wanted to do,” he says.
“I rewarded myself for working so hard by purchasing 10 sports cars and lots of bonsai trees. Later though, I looked back at my life and thought about the mistakes I had made and what I had really lived for. I don’t want to disappear from this Earth with just a few funeral souvenirs such as a Buddha amulet, umbrella or inhaler. No matter how much money I spend or how much land I have, all I will have when I die is a coffin. I have collected bonsai trees for many years and to me they are like living sculptures. My philosophy is to pay attention to the things at hand and this trait helped me to be successful in business. 
“But success can change our behaviour both positively and negatively. I remember hearing a man in a Vietnamese restaurant shouting at a waiter who couldn’t tell him the name of a particular vegetable. I thought, ‘here is someone who can no longer hear his |own voice’. Perhaps I was like that too.

 “I want to create sculptures because I need some value in my life and I know that making money isn’t difficult. In fact, the only time I am really happy is when I am working on my art – whether sketching my ideas or moulding a sculpture. For me, that is true freedom of thought. For almost 10 years, I focused on my business and it paid me well, in excess of Bt50 million a year. But I needed more time to work on my art, so I dropped some of my business,” he adds.
Kma started creating his sculptures with three main concepts in mind: aesthetics, mindfulness of self, and benefit to society. He spent seven years producing the works for the exhibition followed by a further year for the casting in bronze.
“My sculpture named ‘Remind’ is made of bronze but has the red-orange-brown tone of rust. The gold heart the figure is holding is turning to rust symbolic of goodness fading away. It is a warning about speaking impolitely to others. I would like the person who buys this work to become more aware of his behaviour toward his fellow men. Attitude is all-important and I demonstrate this by giving my human sculptures large heads. I would like my works of art to live on like ‘men of words and not of deeds” after I die. I want my sculptures to speak for themselves,” he says.
The 14 bronze sculptures in “Weaving Narratives”, which are spread over the art centre’s two rooms, are centred on humans and animals. The dog makes an appearance in “7 Days” and “My Son” and the buffalo in “Hug” and “Attitude”.
“The dog and buffalo are part of Thai culture. Dogs are loyal to their masters, who are often abandoned by their own children. ‘7 Days’ reminds us that there are just seven days in a week and that we can live and die on any of them. A dog sculpture hanging above a man has a white rose in its mouth depicting the durability of love. The dog is sculpted in bronze and the surface is made to resemble white stone through a mix of stone, copper, gold and tree bark.
“The buffalo figures in ‘Attitude’ and has two men sitting back-to-back on the animal’s back. ‘Hug’ is a kind of primitive art with symbols. “Perfectionist” is a sculpture of a buffalo standing on two legs and acting like Michelangelo’s “David”, while “Fly” is a sculpture of a buffalo striking a ballet pose.
“My message is that we all want to be perfect but none of us are. I’m influenced by Dadaism but I have sculpted the rippling of moving muscles from Renaissance art. I studied real buffaloes at Buffalo Village in Suphan Buri. ‘Fly’ was inspired by a dream in which I was looking out of the window of a plane and saw a buffalo dancing ballet on the ground,” says Kma.
“Hope” is a sculpture of a buffalo looking like an ancient cult image in a form that mixes Renaissance with Lop Buri art while “Believe” has a dog depicting the moves of a boxer and holding a banknote in its mouth.
“It means that if you believe in what you want to do, you will achieve it,” says Kma.

•   “Weaving Narratives: Awaken” continues at Subhashok The Arts Centre until September 10.
•  Find out more at (02) 662 0299 or visit Subhashok The Arts Centre Facebook page.