User:Myrtille tibayrenc/Haritorn Akarapat

Tawan Wattuya

Tawan Wattuya was born in 1973 in Bangkok, Thailand. He studied arts at the Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. He is now an established painter in Thailand. Over the past ten years Wattuya has steadily confirmed the originality of an oeuvre that is simultaneously intuitive and analytical. Tackling subjects such as politics, sexuality, identity, he achieved to hustle most taboos in Thai society. Since first appearing on the Thai contemporary art scene in 2000, he has continuously excelled at translating his provocative social visions into forceful artworks. He uses art as a weapon to break through the conventional image of the society he lives in.

He has exhibited his works worldwide in Asia and Europe mostly.

“Bimbos, Stars & Super Heroes” (2010, Toot Yung Gallery, Bangkok) is the exploration of an artist confronted to a multifaceted society. Wattuya works from reproductions of found imageries, mostly from internet and through leafing old and new magazines. In his search for inner individuality, Wattuya seems to face up to the appearances of human beings which exert a fascination on the general population. Anonymous porn actors, faded stars and glorious super heroes are the scheme of this search. Through these characters Wattuya mocks the “ideal” human figure. His paintings explore and question the imprint that these images have on the population. How is this mirror game getting more and more powerful and distorted? It seems that the artist, in his painting process changes the “power and ambition” of the original picture redirecting it to another dimension, another space and time. He gives his “models” a new identity, perhaps more human. He achieves to illustrate both the beauty and the decay of the human body.

In the exhibition “Uniform/Uniformity” (2010, Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok) Tawan questioned the appearances of Thai social groups. He focused on pictures from magazines in which gathered people appear, posing in rows. Families posing for a wedding ceremony, politicians, Miss Thailand contestants, students, all groups evoking the social order. He ironically striped the models as to make them appear as a group of massage parlor prostitutes. He pointed out the importance of appearances in the Thai society, the significance of social status shown by the uniform one is wearing. This exhibition was the starting point on his new search of Thailand’s hidden face, once again related to Thailand’s social identity.

Tawan had already explored what makes the identity of Thai people in his first solo show “Japanese and European” (2000), focusing on the trends followed by Thai teens and their fascination for Japanese and Korean pop culture. His show, “500” (2005) which presented a set of 500 watercolor blurred portraits of the ex Prime Minister Taksin was probably the starting point of Tawan’s politically engaged art. Since then he has explored a very personal watercolor technique which has become Tawan’s trademark. He now developed the technique into becoming a concept of its own.

In 2007 he proposed a very provocative vision of Thai society in “Siamese Freaks” portraying Thai political figures and Pop stars as monstrous Siamese freaks. Ironically ranging political men at the same level as TV pop stars, or even anonymous porn actors, he revealed the “inversed” power of the media.

In his 2008 show with sculptor Haritorn Akarapat “The Inner I” he used street dogs as a satire of his compatriots. By paintings the attitudes of the dogs as being human, pride, self contentment, exerted animal like sexuality, he once again succeeded a very ironic and strong portrayal of Thai people.

In his show with the photographer Tada Varich, “Story of the Eye” (2009), he explored sexuality, not only mocking Thai censorship on erotic images but also shaking Thai conventional and prude painting of nudes.

Strong from all his past experiences, Tawan has reached a precocious maturity. His paintings are a profound exploration of the human condition; what makes their identity, their approach of sexuality, their beliefs. Tawan Wattuya uses his painting medium truly as a weapon to raise crucial questions, threatening the apparent uniformity and structure of his own society. In such social conditioning, how could one express himself freely and above all how could one free himself from the tyranny of identity?