Wittawat Tongkeaw’s exhibition 841.594 opened on 7th October at Cartel Artspace in Bangkok, and runs until 30th October. The show’s title is taken from the metric measurements of an A1 poster (841x594mm) and, just as posters have historically been used as propaganda tools, Wittawat’s paintings highlight the propaganda value of everyday objects.
The gallery walls have been painted blue, and this colour also dominates several of the paintings. Poster No. 12 (โปสเตอร์แผ่นที่ ๑๒), for example, shows a television with a blue screen and a clock indicating 8 o’clock. (A daily bulletin of royal news is broadcast on TV at 8pm.)
The gallery walls have been painted blue, and this colour also dominates several of the paintings. Poster No. 12 (โปสเตอร์แผ่นที่ ๑๒), for example, shows a television with a blue screen and a clock indicating 8 o’clock. (A daily bulletin of royal news is broadcast on TV at 8pm.)
841.594 was shown earlier this year (21st May to 5th July) at the Many Cuts Art Space in Chachoengsao, and one painting from that exhibition — Poster No. 9 (โปสเตอ ร์แผ่นที่ ๙) — is not on show at Cartel. The missing work depicts the Thai flag dominated by a large blue panel, a smaller white space, and a tiny sliver of red.
Wittawat has also used the colour blue in previous artworks. For Blue and Yellow in 2021, he surrounded a painting based on Neal Ulevich’s photograph of the 6th October 1976 massacre with a large blue border and covered the faces of the vigilantes with yellow paint. His installation Subaltern featured a text about 6th October by art critic Panu Boonpipattanapong printed in braille on blue paper, displayed next to a folding chair. (Subaltern was shown at the Bird Eye View exhibition at SAC Gallery in Bangkok from 19th October to 18th November 2018.)
