JIRAPAT TATSANASOMBOON

LOVE and LUSTSTEVEN PETTIFOR

JIRAPAT TATSANASOMBOON

LOVE and LUSTSTEVEN PETTIFOR

LOVE and LUSTSteven Pettifor

JIRAPAT TATSANASOMBOON

Published 2008 byThavibu Gallery Co., LtdSilom Galleria, Suite 308919/1 Silom Road, Bangkok 10500, ThailandTel. 66 (0)2 266 5454, Fax. 66 (0)2 266 5455Email. info@thavibu.com, www.thavibu.com

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Thavibu Gallery has the pleasure of presenting the current catalogue and exhibition LOVE and LUST by the Thaiartist Jirapat Tatsanasomboon. The exhibition takes place in Bangkok on 13 September - 5 October 2008.

Jirapat Tatsanasomboon has over the last few years created a series of paintings focusing on the interactionsbetween East - West and Modern - Traditional in humorous and attractive ways using characters from thetraditional Thai story of Ramakien (Ramayana), Lanna style persons, and western symbols such as superheroesand icons from movies and the art world.

The text has been written by Steven Pettifor, the Thailand editor of Asian Art News Magazine (Hong Kong).

I take this opportunity to thank Jirapat Tatsanasomboon for his collaboration, and Steven Pettifor for hiscontribution.

FOREWORDJørn MiddelborgThavibu Gallery

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Jirapat Tasanasomboon’s Pop-stylepaintings resonate with Thai youth culture,where appropriation and reinvention arereadily assimilated. Emanating from acountry that wantonly devours all thingsWestern yet is vehemently protective ofits own traditional cultural heritage,Tatsanasomboon’s art wittily conveys thedilemmas embroiling contemporary urbanThais, including the indeterminable affectsthat rapid modernisation is bringing uponhis countrymen.

Tatsanasomboon is certainly not unique inhis cross cultural fusion of artistic styles;artists have long been influenced by artfrom other nations or cultures. In EuropePablo Picasso expressed a fascination withAfrican primitivism, Paul Gaugin wasseduced by Polynesian arts, and Van Goghalong with many 19th century Europeanartists was interested in Japanesewoodblock prints. In many such instances,such as with the European infatuation withJaponisme, interest was born out of betteraccess to, or an opening of, that particularcountry’s borders.

An example in contemporary Asianterms, China’s recent elevation on theinternational art stage has been forged onincreased trade and a supposed softeningof its ideological stance. The culturalbarometers of such change, one only hasto look to artists like Ai Wei Wei, the LuoBrothers, or Wang Guangyi, for theirinterpretations upon the pervasivenessof Western-style consumerism, or toWang Xingwei or Shi Xinning for Chineseperspectives on Western art.

For Thailand, artisans have longassimilated cultural influence from thedominant Asian civilisations of the ancientKhmers, India, and China. But it was inthe early 20th century, when the Siameseroyal court returned from their Europeansojourns that trends in Western artpractice began filtering through to Thaiartists. A close adherence to Westernartistic schools or genres followedthroughout the 20th century, and today it isstill common for more conventional artiststo affiliate themselves to a preferred stylesuch as surrealism, impressionism orabstraction.

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CULTURAL CONFRONTATION

I want You....!, 2008Acrylic on canvas

120 x 130 cm

Born in 1971 in the central province ofSamut Prakarn, Tatsanasombooncompleted his Masters Degree fromSilapakorn University in 1999, and hassince participated in several domestic artshows. Internationally he has exhibitedin Korea, as well as the 2006 exhibitionTradition and Modernity in South EastAsian Art held at New York’s Galeriel’Indochine. He was also selected as one oftwo Thai artists for the exhibition Vision ofEast Asia 2008 during the Beijing OlympicGames. Tatsanasomboon first arrivedupon his core them of East-Westerndichotomy while still a student in themid-nineties. The impressionable youngstudent was sucked into the controversythat had built over the location filming ofscenes from the Hollywood action flickMortal Combat (1995) that were being shoton and around the historic ruins of theformer Thai capital of Ayutthaya. Localcritics laid claim that the filming washarming the UNESCO world heritage site,although permission had been granted bythe Film Board, the Public Relations, andthe Fine Arts departments.

Similar to the outcry over the subsequent1999 filming of The Beach on the islandof Ko Phi Phi, location filming at some ofThailand’s key tourist destinationsreinforced the mood of a country that wasdesperate to preserve what it perceivedto be the tenets of its nationhood. Yet theexploitation of such historic and naturalresources was driven largely by theauthorities wish to enhance Thailand’simage on the international stage, andfurther drive tourism.

However, today’s cultural and consumeristabsorptions are just as likely to come fromregional economic heavyweights such asJapan, Korea, China, and India, as theydo from America and Europe. Yet, suchregional influence is accepted as beingAsian and is readily consumed with littleprotestation. This hasn’t escapedTatsanasomboon’s attention though,“I have attempted to incorporate Japanesemotifs into my art but it didn’t feel right.The dichotomy of East and West is moreprofound and more visually potent.”

In fact Tatsanasomboon is like manyThais in that he is also emphatic tocertain Western cultural fraternisation,particularly enjoying the genre ofHollywood action movies the very like ofMortal Combat. However, he also claimsto be passionate about the greatmythological narratives of the Ramakien,which is the Thai version of the IndianHindu epic the Ramanyana.

Compounded by the Asian economiccrisis of 1997, which again was largelyattributed to aggressive monetaryinterference by Western speculators, likemany of his fellow Thais, Tatsanasomboonquestioned the pervasive and potentiallydestructive influence of Western cultureand capitalism upon his country.

“Personally I felt that Westernisationwas all about material possession andconsumption, it is true that the Westbrings in a lot of good things to Thailand,but it has also reduced many of ourcountry’s attributes to tourist spots. I seethe East as somewhere more intangible,”explains Tatsanasomboon.

As with many of his artistic peers such associo-political firebrand Vasan Sitthiketand Pop appropriator Anan Pratchayanan,the West became a convenient visualscapegoat during the mid-to-late nineties.Failing to see the larger picture, Thaiartists who addressed such themeslargely dismissed the obvious desire bymuch of the populace to fervently embracesuch economic and cultural imports.

“I am not condemning the West fordiluting Thai culture but when Westernimports arrive in Thailand, people feelthey have to embrace these new productsor pop trends otherwise they will belooked down upon by their neighboursas being uncivilised,” Tatsanasomboonreiterates.

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Jealousy, 2008Acrylic on canvas80 x 172 cm

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Adapted from Indian poet Valmiki’s 2,000year-old classic, the Ramakien is probablyThailand’s best known literary work.The virtuous odyssey centres upon therelationship between King Rama and hiswife Sita, with the best known writteninterpretation of the saga attributed toKing Chakri’s (Rama I) 18th centuryversion. Aside from the poetic words, thetale has also been immortalised throughelaborately costumed court danceperformances known as khon, as well asthe series of intricate mural paintingsadorning the cloisters of Bangkok’sTemple of the Emerald Buddha.

Keen to fuse such differing manners ofstory telling, Tatsanasomboon begandrafting his earliest compositions in hisjarring of continental polemics. Previouslyin the early 1990s Tatsanasomboon’spainting style had been inconsistent ashe attempted to find a personal voice.His compositions were somewhat heavyhanded in his metaphors to genderrelationships, when in 1995 he paintedContradiction, his first attempt at whatwould become a uniform style. A con-gested montage of overlapping mythologi-cal Thai and American pop caricatures,the excess of the initial experimentationwould gradually refine into the morefocused painterly interactions of present.

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Searching for Sita in New York, 2008Acrylic on canvas129 x 129 cm

Contradiction, 1995Acrylic on canvas

150 x 180 cm

His main pictorial construction evolvesround a simple yet effective confrontationor juxtaposition of two opposing subjects,which he typically layers with an impliednarrative. Early manifestations of thisdichotomy were besieged by an allegianceof American comic book heroes.Tatsanasomboon began his Pop parodiesat a time when Hollywood was alsoresuscitating cartoon strip charactersfor a continuing slew of big screenadaptations that have included Batman,Spiderman, the X-Men, the Hulk, andSuperman.

Green Goblinvs Maiyarap,2004Acrylic on canvas150 x 155 cm

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Melding traditional figures from Thaimythology against cape-clad crusaderslike Wonder-woman, Batman, Superman,and Captain America, Tatsanasomboonused one-on-one bouts as metaphors forthe awkward jarring of the East-West axis,traditional and modern, the U.S.A andThailand.

One of the most potent deliveries of thishead-to-head confrontation comes in the2004 Green Goblin vs Maiyarap, in which

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Ironically, aside from the pulp entertain-ment of American comic books, the heroiccrime fighters that grace popular cartoonstrips provide youth with a moral counte-nance between good and evil. With themythological tales of the Ramakienpresented in much the same manner, theartist’s objective is to highlight how similarcultural nuances can be misrepresentedoutside their intended context.

Aside from the overt stylistic contrastsof his chosen subjects, their aestheticdistinctions are heightened through theartist’s differing application, with thedelicately brushed and intricately detailedEastern classical figures a stark contrastto the bold flat Pop style renderings.Drawing from his country’s rich traditionfor decorative arts, Jirapat’s lavishlyadorned icons from the epic Ramakien area deliberate discordant to the bold blocksof colour on the costumed superheroes.

Often his characters are staged floating orsuspended within the pictorial space,bringing to mind the simplified backdropsof comic book illustrations. In paintingssuch as Captain America vs Gumpagan(2003), there is a decorative floral motifrunning behind the foreground altercation,a definite reference to the flat backgroundperspectives from the tradition of Buddhisttemple mural art.

Captain America vs Gumpagan, 2003Acrylic on canvas60 x 80 cm

much of Tatsanasomboon’s kitschyhumour is surpassed by a darker morebrooding atmosphere of intense struggle.A re-visitation in posturing to the earlier2002 work Captain America and ArkartTalai, the more theatrical fisticuff bravadois replaced by what seems an intenselife or death battle, in which neitherappears the obvious hero. There is noempathy to the goblin’s menacing armourand piercing yellow stare as he grapplesMaiyarap, king of the underworld.

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Working a single composition through toits resolution before commencing anotherwork, Tatsanasomboon typically drafts asketch before he sets about the canvas.Applying acrylic paints which he thensoftens by layering finite pencil detailing,the artist envisions the final look from theoutset, though elements still evolvethroughout the process. In the recent2008 work Love Conquers All for example,Tatsanasomboon decided to use a KeithHaring figure hugging one of his tradi-tional mythological characters, but thepairing of a yaksha (nature-spirit) in theparticular posturing emerged as thepicture took shape.

Another recurrent pictorial trait is theartist’s calculated and selective utilisationof drips of paint, which he typically con-fines to a small area of the background.With the paintings highly polished veneers,it seems a device to notify the viewer thatan artist’s hand has been employed andthe work is an original and not a print.“There’s no metaphor as such but I viewthe backgrounds like temple ruins,I include the drips to signify imperfection.It also helps fuse the different visualelements together. But in the recent (2008)work Belief (Thai Amulet) the drips havebecome sperm spilling out from thephallus motif,” says Tatsanasomboon.

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Love Conquers All, 2008Acrylic on canvas129 x 147 cm

Belief [Thai Amulet], 2008Acrylic on canvas

120 x 150 cm

Gradually his compositions have edgedaway from more blatant juxtapositionsof East-West iconography, becomingmore subtle as he moves beyond meresuperheroes. Moving towards post-modernism in his appropriation of popularlegends from American movie history,Tatsanasomboon also pulls from Westernmodern art referencing. His own ethno-centric adaptations have also expandedbeyond mythic allegory to invoke the flatfigurative representational art indicativeto historic temple murals and vernaculardecoration in Thailand.

With Hollywood actors idolised inan almost reverential manner,Tatsanasomboon fashions portraits offallen screen icons that include JohnWayne, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, andJames Dean, which he juxtaposes againstassociations to Buddhism. In the seriesBelief (2006-present), the artist satirisesthe cult of celebrity which is consumingWestern media in a manner akin toreligious worship. In the 2006 paintingBelief (3) and the 2007 Belief (4), bothElvis Presley and John Wayne assume agod-like stature, with Presley depictedagainst a traditional prayer tablet to wardoff evil spirits, while Wayne is powerfullymatched against a clay Buddhist amulet.

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Belief (3) [Elvis Presley], 2006Acrylic on canvas87 x 107 cm

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Belief (4) [John Wayne], 2007Acrylic on canvas

86 x 132 cm

In the current exhibition - Love and Lust -Tatsanasomboon considers his paintingsto be less hostile. The obvious visual battlehas been subdued, becoming morepassive and blurred in its messaging whilealso raising the level of sarcasm. Whereaspreviously Tatsanasomboon appropriatedcharacters from the Ramakien primarilyfor their aesthetic appeal and physicalcharacteristics, in this recent series theartist references specific narratives fromthe epic tale to explore notions of love andconflict.

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LOVE AND LUST

In the three paintings Fighting over theMaiden (1), (2) and (3) along with Straying(all 2008), Tatsanasomboon looks toRobert Indiana’s eye popping 1960s screenprint Love for inspiration. An iconicartwork that has already been widelyreinterpreted by other artists includingthe mid-1980s AIDS logo posters by theCanadian collective General Idea, inTatsanasomboon’s versions he focuseson the relationship between Sita and herhusband King Rama, who had to defendher honour after being abducted and heldcaptive by the evil king Totsakan (Ravana).

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Fighting Over the Maiden (1), 2008 Acrylic on canvas 129 x 129 cm

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Fighting Over the Maiden (2), 2008 Acrylic on canvas 129 x 129 cm

Fighting Over the Maiden (3), 2008 Acrylic on canvas 129 x 129 cm

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Straying, 2008 Acrylic on canvas 129 x 129 cm

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Lovers (11), 2008 Acrylic on canvas 129 x 129 cm

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The Indiana Love reinterpretations areone of the only examples whereinTatsanasomboon utilises a Western artreference to reinforce, rather thancontrast, his Eastern aligned imagery.Previously Tatsanasomboon has quirkilycustomised paintings by the likes ofMichelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli,Rousseau, Mondrian, along with his twopreferred Pop artists Lichtenstein andWarhol, both of whom are repeatedlyre-contextualised through his art. In Loveand Lust, Tatsanasomboon composesfurther artistic comparatives from thecanons of Western art history throughthe incorporation of iconic artworks byIndiana, as well as Keith Haring, JeffKoons, and Andy Warhol once again.

The Dream [after Rousseau], 2006Acrylic on canvas

88 x 119 cm

Hanuman is Upset! [after Mondrian], 2005Acrylic on canvas100 x 100 cm

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The Transformation of Sita [after Botticelli], 2006Acrylic on canvas100 x 130 cm

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The Pink Panther Strikes Again [after J.Koons], 2008 Acrylic on canvas 120 x 150 cm

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Lovers (9), 2008 Acrylic on canvas 86 x 112 cm

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Lovers (10), 2008 Acrylic on canvas 120 x 150 cm

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The Keith Haring re-visitations arearguably the most whimsical of Tatsa-nasomboon’s recent work. Playful in theirapproach, the artist has created a seriesof intimate sexual trysts between thetrademark Haring silhouette figure andclassically styled depictions of Thai womenand men. While he has approached similarliaisons between idealised Thai beautiesand American screen icons such as JohnWayne in the 2005 Oops!, Spiderman inOur Prayers Are Answered! (2006), andHomer Simpson in the 2007 Geeezzz!,these show the Western protagonists aspassive voyeurs.

Oops, 2005Acrylic on canvas86 x 100 cm

Our Prayers Are Answered!, 2006Acrylic on canvas

78 x 105 cm

Geeezzz!!, 2007Acrylic on canvas90 x 120 cm

In the new Haring compositions, Tatsana-somboon depicts the featureless outlinedfigure embracing and groping willingfemale subjects who are garbed inindigenous clothing and shown toplessas Thai women commonly dressed priorto the adoption of conservative Westerndress codes in the 19th century.

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It would be convenient to draw an analogybetween Western male sex touristscoming to Thailand to exploit the economicdesperation of female entertainmentworkers, however the artist negates anysuch associations as he explains, “I don’tthink of anyone as being a predator orpray, the women are smiling in thesepictures and relations are consensual.I actually want to show that love isuniversal and traverses all boundaries.”

Lovers (8), 2008Acrylic on canvas86 x 112 cm

Kiss, 2008Acrylic on canvas

129 x 129 cm

In Hanuman Rebels! (2008), which can beconsidered one of his best paintings todate, the artist has looked for a deeperconnectivity between the two opposingelements of the monkey god Hanumanwith Piet Mondrian’s 20th century linearabstractions. Depicted in soft greymonotone, the wild and playful Hanumanhas been caged within the disciplinedorder and stability of Mondrian’s heavyblack outlines. Blocks of red, blue andyellow, colour and fracture the deity as iftrying to break free from his orderlyshackles to form, the wavering blackoutlines drip from his fingers and toes toindicate the affect the mischievous godhas upon Mondrian’s crisp order.

In Love and Lust, Tatsanasomboon provesthat through greater thematic layering hehas yet to exhaust his Pop-styled dialoguebetween East and West.

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Hanuman Rebels!, 2008Acrylic on canvas

129 x 147 cmIn Art Singapore 2008

Jirapat TatsanasomboonBorn 1971 in Samut Prakarn

1996: Bachelor of Fine Arts from Chiang Mai University1999: Master of Fine Arts from Silapakorn University, Bangkok

CHRONOLOGY

Photo by C

hamni Thipm

anee

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Selected Art Exhibitions

1997: - Art Thesis Exhibition at Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University - Chiang Mai, Thailand- ASEAN Art Awards Exhibition, Thailand

1998: - The 44th National Art Exhibition, the National Gallery - Bangkok, Thailand

1999: - Art Thesis Exhibition at Silapakorn University - Bangkok, Thailand

2000: - ASEAN Art Awards Exhibition - Bangkok, Thailand- The 46th National Art Exhibition, the National Gallery - Bangkok, Thailand

2001: - Group Show - with Scopolamine Group - Bangkok, Thailand

2002: - Award winner in the 4th Panasonic Contemporary Paintings Art Competition - Bangkok, Thailand

2003: - ASEAN Art Awards Exhibition - Bangkok, Thailand- Asia Art Now at the Korean Cultural and Arts Foundation - Seoul, Korea

2004: - Love and Struggle together with Sudjai Chaiyapan at Thavibu Gallery - Bangkok, Thailand

2005: - Fundraising Exhibition and Auction for Asian Art Archive - Hong Kong

2006: - Solo Show: A Transformation of Icons at Thavibu Gallery - Bangkok, Thailand- Tradition and Modernity in South East Asian Art at Galerie l’Indochine - New York, USA

2008: - Vision of East Asia 2008 at the Capital Library, Beijing for the Olympics - China- Spiritual Spaces, Thavibu Gallery’s 10th anniversary exhibition - Bangkok, Thailand- Art Singapore 2008 - Singapore- Solo Show: LOVE and LUST at Thavibu Gallery - Bangkok, Thailand

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