Asian Political Cartoons

John A. Lent’s Asian Political Cartoons is a remarkable and comprehensive book, covering the history of political cartoons in no fewer than twenty countries. As the publisher claims, with justification, it is “not only the first such survey in English, but the most complete and detailed in any language.” Lent has interviewed more than 200 cartoonists—most notably, Zunar in Malaysia—and made multiple research trips to each of the countries he documents.

Histories of political cartoons traditionally focus on revolutionary France, Georgian Britain, and the Reconstruction era in the United States. Lent’s book, on the other hand, is a window into a previously inaccessible world of satirical art. He shows how cartoonists have challenged authoritarian regimes throughout Asia, and assesses the varying degrees of “freedom to cartoon” in the region (such as the repressive treatment of Mana Neyestani in Iran and Arifur Rahman in Bangladesh).

For his chapter on Thailand, Lent interviewed Chai Rachawat and Arun Watcharasawad, veteran cartoonists who have covered Thai politics since the 1970s for Thai Rath (ไทยรัฐ) and Matichon (มติชน), respectively. He discussed the Thaksin Shinawatra era with Buncha and Kamin from Manager (ผู้จัดการรายวัน), and he describes the enforced ‘attitude adjustment’ of another Thai Rath cartoonist, Sia, under Prayut Chan-o-cha’s military rule. He also covers the rise of anonymous online satirists such as Khai Maew. (Sia wasn’t interviewed for the book, though he spoke to Dateline Bangkok last year.)

The scope of Asian Political Cartoons is unprecedented, though Cherian George’s Red Lines also examines political cartooning from an international perspective. Victor S. Navasky’s The Art of Controversy covers European and American political cartoons, and Alexander Roob reproduces early newspaper cartoons in The History of Press Graphics 1819–1921.

รำลึก 19 ปี ตากใบ(‘remembering 19 years of Tak Bai’)

Today marks the nineteenth anniversary of the tragedy that took place at Tak Bai on 25th October 2004. More than 1,000 people protested outside Tak Bai’s Provincial Police Station, and police responded with water cannon, tear gas, and live ammunition, killing five people. The surviving demonstrators were crammed into trucks and taken to Ingkhayuttha Borihan Fort military camp, though seventy-eight people died of suffocation during the five-hour journey.

The security forces have never been held accountable for the deaths, and the government prohibited the broadcasting of video footage of the incident. In defiance of the ban, Same Sky (ฟ้าเดียวกัน) magazine distributed a Tak Bai VCD—ความจริงที่ตากใบ (‘the truth at Tak Bai’)—with its October–December 2004 issue (vol. 2, no. 4). The footage is also included in Thunska Pansittivorakul’s documentary This Area Is Under Quarantine (บริเวณนี้อยู่ภายใต้การกักกัน), leading to the film being banned. (Thai Cinema Uncensored discusses the censorship of Tak Bai videos.)

รำลึก 19 ปี ตากใบ (‘remembering 19 years of Tak Bai’), an exhibition at Patani Artspace, opens today to commemorate the anniversary, and closes on 16th December. Video and photographs are included, and this afternoon there will also be a rare opportunity to play Patani Colonial Territory. (The card game, which was banned last year, was designed as an educational tool to provoke discussion about the contested history of the Patani region.)

The Heard the Unheard (สดับเสียงเงียบ) exhibition at Silpakorn and Thammasat universities earlier this year also commemorated the nineteenth anniversary. Tak Bai photographs were shown at the Deep South (ลึกลงไป ใต้ชายแดน) exhibition last year in Bangkok. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Photophobia series incorporates press photographs of the incident, as does the interactive installation Black Air by Pimpaka Towira, Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr, Koichi Shimizu, and Jakrawal Nilthamrong.

Jehabdulloh Jehsorhoh’s Violence in Tak Bai (ความรุนแรงที่ตากใบ) features white tombstones marking the graves of each victim, and his book The Patani Art of Struggle (سني ڤتاني چاراو او سها) shows three versions of the installation in situ. It was first installed, just a few days after the massacre, at Prince of Songkla University in Pattani, and the grave markers were accompanied by rifles wrapped in white cloth. In 2017, it was recreated at Patani Artspace and then mounted on a plinth containing Pattani soil at the Patani Semasa (ปาตานี ร่วมสมัย) exhibition.

Two other installations—Jakkhai Siributr’s 78 and Zakariya Amataya’s Report from a Partitioned Village (รายงานจากหมู่บ้านที่ถูกปิดล้อม)—both include lists of the Tak Bai victims’ names. Photophobia, 78, and Violence in Tak Bai were all included in the Patani Semasa exhibition in Chiang Mai. (The exhibition catalogue gives Violence in Tak Bai a milder alternative title, Remember at Tak Bai.)

Cunt

Feminist artist Janice Turner has published two books of her ‘cunt’ paintings: The Cunt Book in 2019, and the significantly expanded The Essential Cunt last year (which also includes an interview with the author). Turner cites Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues as the original inspiration for her quest to reclaim the c-word, and in The Essential Cunt she repeats the word in the same way that Ensler does: “Cunt, practice it cunt cunt cunt cunt love the word and love your CUNT”.

There are also other possible influences. Turner’s phrase “love your CUNT” evokes Germaine Greer’s pioneering essay Lady Love Your Cunt, and The Essential Cunt seems to paraphrase a monologue about the f-word from Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour. Madonna told her audience: “‘Fuck’ is not a bad word... If your mom and dad did not fuck, you would not be here”; Turner writes: “CUNT is not a dirty word!... If not for a CUNT, you would not be here!” Other artists who have painted the c-word include Marlene McCarty, Sam Taylor-Wood, and Alison Carmichael.

50 ปี 14 ตุลาเจ้าฝันถึงโลกสีใด(‘50 years of 14th Oct.: what colour world do you dream of?’)

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 14th October 1973 demonstration, when 500,000 people rallied at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument calling for a new constitution and an end to Thanom Kittikachorn’s dictatorial rule. The protest was successful, as Thanom was dismissed as prime minister and sent into exile—leading to a three-year period of democracy—though the military shot and killed seventy-seven protesters.

Commemorations of the massacre are surprisingly understated, despite the historic fiftieth anniversary. A commemorative exhibition earlier in the year contained no references to the incident. There is an exhibition of political billboards at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, albeit on a small scale. Most lamentably, there is an even smaller display of photocopied pages—from The Ten Days (วันมหาวิปโยค)— outside the 14 October 73 Memorial. The most substantial event is a series of film screenings at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya.

Another compact exhibition commemorating the anniversary opened today at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. Organised by the publisher of Matichon (มติชน), 50 ปี 14 ตุลา เจ้าฝันถึงโลกสีใด (‘50 years of 14th Oct.: what colour world do you dream of?’) features a display of books, notably บันทึกลับจากทุ่งใหญ่ (‘secret notes on Thung Yai’), which exposed military corruption in the months before the protests. The exhibition also includes a monitor screening the documentary อนุทินวีรชน 14 ตุลาคม (‘diary of 14th October heroes’).

The documentary will also be shown at the Thai Film Archive, on 14th October. The exhibition at QSNCC runs until 23rd October, to coincide with Book Expo Thailand 2023. The exhibition brochure folds out into a small poster with a black-and-white photo of protesters at Democracy Monument on the day before the massacre.

Matichon also launched a new book about the events of October 1973 at the Book Expo today. ข้างหลังภาพ 14 ตุลาฯ: จากระบอบปฏิวัติของเผด็จการสู่การปฏิวัติของประชาชน (‘behind the image of 14th Oct.: from the dictatorship’s revolutionary regime to the people’s revolution’), by Pandit Chanrochanakit, includes reproductions of newspaper headlines and paintings related to the protests, and provides context on the political climate in the years before the massacre.

๕๐ ปี ๑๔ ตุลา(‘50 years of 14th Oct.’)

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 14th October 1973 demonstration, when 500,000 people rallied at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument calling for an end to Thanom Kittikachorn’s dictatorial rule. The protest was successful, as Thanom was dismissed as prime minister and sent into exile, though the military shot and killed seventy-seven protesters. The anniversary was commemorated with an exhibition of paintings at g23 earlier in the year, and there will also be an exhibition at the forthcoming Thailand Book Expo and screenings at the Thai Film Archive later this month.

Bangkok Art and Culture Centre is also holding an exhibition to mark the anniversary, from 3rd to 15th October, with replicas of billboards created by the United Artists’ Front of Thailand (แนวร่วมศิลปินแห่งประเทศไทย). The billboards were originally displayed outdoors in 1975, and the replicas have been shown at two previous exhibitions: Political Cut-out Artworks of the October Event (ภาพศิลปะคัทเอาท์การเมืองเดือนตุลา) in 2003 and ภาพคัตเอาท์การเมืองเดือนตุลา (‘October political billboard artworks’) in 2009.

BACC will also be screening a series of short films, including Pirab (พิราบ) and the documentary The Shadow of History (เงาประวัติศาสตร์) on 8th October, and 16 ตุลา (‘16th Oct.’) on 15th October. (Pirab was previously shown at Thammasat University earlier this month, at Future Fest 2023, and at the Thai Film Archive in 2017. 16 ตุลา was previously shown online as part of Democracy.exe in 2021.)

The Shadow of History, produced by the Thai Film Archive on the fortieth anniversary of the protest, features newsreel footage of the event filmed by Chin Klaiparn and Taweesak Wiriyasiri. It was directed by Panu Aree, Kong Rithdee, and Kaweenipon Ketprasit.

Pirab, directed by Pasit Promnumpol, begins with a flashback (in sound only) to another massacre, on 6th October 1976, which took place after Thanom’s return from exile. The film dramatises a student’s anguished decision to leave his family and join the Communist insurgency, allowing the audience to empathise with the young man’s dilemma.

In 16 ตุลา, three student protest leaders debate their tactics in the aftermath of the 2014 coup. (The three students could, of course, be substitutes for Arnon Nampa, Panusaya Sithjirawattanakul, and Parit Chirawak.) Aomtip Kerdplanant’s drama shows how the students’ lives have changed in the years since their initial campaign, indicating how seasoned protesters can become disillusioned. The title is a conflation of the 14th October 1973 and 6th October 1976 massacres, which have been whitewashed to such an extent that many people cannot tell them apart.

คนอุบลใน 6 ตุลา(‘Ubon people and 6th Oct.’)

Tomorrow marks the forty-seventh anniversary of the massacre that took place at Thammasat University on 6th October 1976, the most notorious date in modern Thai history. The anniversary will be commemorated at Thammasat tomorrow, but only for a single day. There will be a one-day exhibition—112 มรดก 6 ตุลา— (‘112: the legacy of 6th Oct.’) and screenings of the documentary Different Views, Death Sentence (ต่างความคิด ผิดถึงตาย ๖ ตุลาคม ๒๕๑๙) and the short film Pirab (พิราบ). There will also be a discussion titled เอายังไงดีกับกองเซ็นเซอร์: บทบาทของคณะกรรมการพิจารณาภาพยนตร์และวิดิทัศน์ภายใต้รัฐบาลซอฟต์พาวเวอร์ (‘what to do with the censors: the role of the National Film and Video Committee and soft power’), arguing that Thailand’s film industry can only contribute to the country’s soft power if the censors’ role is restricted purely to classification rather than cutting or banning films.

คนอุบลใน 6 ตุลา (‘Ubon people and 6th Oct.’), an exhibition at the Songsarn café in Ubon Ratchathani, runs from 22nd September to 6th October and includes photographs of the massacre. Outside the cafe is an enlargement of the Neal Ulevich photograph that has come to symbolise the tragedy, with the hanging man’s body cut out, leaving a physical void in the image to symbolise the whitewashing of the event. A folding chair—a reference to Neal Ulevich’s famous photograph of the massacre—is also hanging outside the venue, and will be used in a performance by artist Narasith Vongprasert tomorrow.

Both the Thammasat and Songsarn exhibitions feature reproductions of the infamous Dao Siam (ดาวสยาม) newspaper front page that precipitated the massacre. The Thammasat exhibition also includes a copy of a speech read by Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul at a 12th December 2021 protest calling for the abolition of article 112 of the criminal code (the lèse-majesté law). The paper is stained with Panusaya’s blood, as she carved “112” into her arm at the demonstration.

Pirab will also be shown on 8th October at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. It was previously shown at Future Fest earlier this year, and at the Thai Film Archive in 2017. Folding chairs have also been shown suspended from ropes at the Status in Statu, Uncensored, and Khonkaen Manifesto (ขอนแก่น แมนิเฟสโต้) exhibitions.

The History of Press Graphics 1819–1921:The Golden Age of Graphic Journalism

Alexander Roob’s The History of Press Graphics 1819–1921: The Golden Age of Graphic Journalism, published earlier this year by Taschen, is a stunning 600-page survey of illustrations from nineteenth and early twentieth century newspapers and magazines. The book features hundreds of images, many of which are full-page and double-page reproductions (such as the John Leech drawing from Punch magazine that first used the word ‘cartoon’ to refer to satirical art), and it includes a comprehensive bibliography.

A prologue outlines the early history of press graphics, from the late sixteenth century onwards, though the book’s starting point is 1819. This was the year of the Peterloo massacre in Manchester, England, and William Hone and George Cruikshank’s pamphlet The Political House That Jack Built, published in response to the tragedy, which “established the era of pictorial journalism”.

Roob examines the technical developments in printing over the period, from wood engraving and lithography in the 1870s to photoxylography a century later. There is also extensive coverage of caricature and political satire, including Charles Philipon’s cartoons of the French King Louis-Philippe.

Philipon was arrested for treason after drawing Louis-Philippe as a plasterer in La Caricature on 30th June 1831. At his trial, he mischievously demonstrated that the King’s likeness could be discerned in almost anything, even a pear, and that fruit became a symbol of Louis-Philippe in subsequent illustrations by Philipon and others. On 27th February 1834, Philipon’s magazine Le Charivari (‘hullabaloo’) published a front-page editorial about the King in the form of a calligram, with the text typeset to resemble a pear.

Philipon’s pear sketches, and a caricature of Louis-Philippe as Gargantua by Honoré Daumier, are reproduced in The Art of Controversy. There is a chapter on press graphics in History of Illustration. The History of Press Graphics 1819–1921 is published in a folio format, the same size as Taschen’s Information Graphics, History of Information Graphics, Understanding the World, and Logo Modernism.

Letter to Freedom

When most of us say ‘or I’ll eat my hat’, we don’t expect to be literally force-fed our headgear if we’re proven wrong. Architect Duangrit Bunnag, on the other hand, is clearly a man of his word.

Duangrit was a prominent Pheu Thai supporter who firmly believed the party’s categorical assurances that there was no backroom deal with the military. On 27th March, he tweeted: “ถ้าเพื่อไทยจับมือกับ พปชร. ผมจะยอมให้เอาขี้ปาหัว” (‘if Pheu Thai joins forces with Palang Pracharath, I will let people throw poo at my head’).

Pheu Thai broke its pledge, and invited the military parties Palang Pracharath and United Thai Nation to form a coalition government. But unlike Pheu Thai, Duangrit kept his word, releasing a statement titled Letter to Freedom (จดหมายสู่อิสรภาพ) pledging to allow people to fling excrement at him.

Yesterday at exactly 3:14pm, Duangrit sat in a protective suit and mask for precisely eleven minutes, while people flung cow dung at him. The timing had political significance, as Pheu Thai’s coalition consists of 314 parliamentary seats and eleven parties, and the 4kg of dung represented his opinion of the four parties at the heart of the coalition: Pheu Thai, Bhumjaithai, Palang Pracharath, and United Thai Nation.

Duangrit designed the Jam Factory and the original Thailand Creative and Design Center. Yesterday’s event—which was both public self-flagellation and scatological performance art—took place at Mirror Art, part of the Mirror Foundation charity in Bangkok.

Letter to Freedom

Architect Duangrit Bunnag posted a written statement on X this morning, pledging to honour an earlier ‘I’ll eat my hat’-style comment. Duangrit, prominent a Pheu Thai supporter, had been so confident that the party would never go into coalition with the military that he pledged to allow people to fling excrement at him if he was proved wrong. On 27th March, he tweeted: “ถ้าเพื่อไทยจับมือกับ พปชร. ผมจะยอมให้เอาขี้ปาหัว” (‘if Pheu Thai joins forces with Palang Pracharath, I will let people throw poo at my head’).

Despite categorical assurances to the contrary, Pheu Thai invited the military parties Palang Pracharath and United Thai Nation to form a coalition government. Unlike Pheu Thai, Duangrit has kept his word, in a statement titled Letter to Freedom (จดหมายสู่อิสรภาพ).

In his open letter, Duangrit (who designed the Jam Factory and the original Thailand Creative and Design Center) announced that he will turn excrement-flinging into performance art on 2nd September. At precisely 3:14pm, for exactly eleven minutes, he will subject himself to whatever is thrown at him, in an event at Mirror Art, part of the Mirror Foundation charity in Bangkok. The timing of the event has political significance, as Pheu Thai’s coalition has 314 parliamentary seats and eleven parties. The gallery will supply 4kg of cow dung, representing the four parties at the heart of the coalition: Pheu Thai, Bhumjaithai, Palang Pracharath, and United Thai Nation.

Artn’t

Two performance artists have each been given suspended sentences, after being found guilty of violating the lèse-majesté law and the Flag Act. Vitthaya Klangnil and Yotsunthon Ruttapradit—both Chiang Mai University students and cofounders of the group Artn’t—displayed a modified version of the Thai flag at CMU in 2021. The charges against them were filed by Srisuwan Janya, head of the Constitution Protection Association pressure group.

The Flag Act prohibits “any act in an insulting manner to the flag, the replica of the flag or the colour bands of the flag”. The Status in Statu (รัฐพิลึก) exhibition featured a roll of fabric modified in a similar way to Artn’t’s flag, but avoided prosecution. Supamok Silarak’s documentary Red Poetry (ความกวีสีแดง) followed Vitthaya during the police investigation into his protest art.

Heard the Unheard:Tak Bai 2004

This year is the nineteenth anniversary of the tragedy that occurred at Tak Bai on 25th October 2004. More than 1,000 people protested outside the Tak Bai Provincial Police Station, and police responded with water cannon, tear gas, and ultimately live ammunition, killing five people. The surviving demonstrators were crammed into trucks and transported to Ingkhayuttha Borihan Fort military camp, though seventy-eight died of suffocation during the five-hour journey.

The authorities have never been held accountable for the deaths, and the Thaksin Shinawatra government prohibited the broadcasting of video footage of the incident. In defiance of the ban, the journal Same Sky (ฟ้าเดียวกัน) distributed a Tak Bai VCD—=ความจริงที่ตากใบ (‘the truth at Tak Bai’)—with its October to December 2004 issue (vol. 2, no. 4). The footage was also included in Thunska Pansittivorakul’s documentary This Area Is Under Quarantine (บริเวณนี้อยู่ภายใต้การกักกัน), which led to the film being banned. (Thai Cinema Uncensored discusses the censorship of Tak Bai footage.)

Heard the Unheard: Tak Bai 2004 (สดับเสียงเงียบ จดจำตากใบ 2547) opens today at the Thammasat Museum of Anthropology, on the university’s Rangsit campus in Pathum Thani. The exhibition, commemorating the tragedy that took place at Tak Bai, runs until 30th September. It was previously held at Silpakorn University in Bangkok, from 9th to 14th March.

Heard the Unheard features the personal possessions of seventeen people who died at Tak Bai—including a ฿100 banknote retrieved from the body of a sixteen-year-old boy, Imron—displayed alongside recollections from the victims’ relatives. These items are also photographed in the new book Tak Bai: Taste of Memories (ลิ้มรสความทรงจำ: ตากใบ), edited by Kusra Kamawan Mukdawijitra.

Tak Bai photographs were shown at the Deep South (ลึกลงไป ใต้ชายแดน) exhibition in Bangkok last year. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Photophobia series features photographs of the incident, as does the interactive installation Black Air by Pimpaka Towira, Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr, Koichi Shimizu, and Jakrawal Nilthamrong.

Jehabdulloh Jehsorhoh’s Violence in Tak Bai (ความรุนแรงที่ตากใบ) comprises white tombstones marking the graves of each victim, and his book The Patani Art of Struggle (سني ڤتاني چاراو او سها) shows three versions of the installation. It was first installed, only a few days after the massacre, at Prince of Songkla University in Pattani, and the grave markers were accompanied by rifles wrapped in white cloth. In 2017, it was first recreated at Patani Artspace and then mounted on a plinth containing Pattani soil at the Patani Semasa (ปาตานี ร่วมสมัย) exhibition in Chiang Mai.

Two further art installations—Jakkhai Siributr’s 78 and Zakariya Amataya’s Report from a Partitioned Village (รายงานจากหมู่บ้านที่ถูกปิดล้อม)—both include lists of the Tak Bai victims’ names. Photophobia, 78, and Violence in Tak Bai were all included in the Patani Semasa exhibition; the exhibition catalogue gives Violence in Tak Bai a milder alternative title, Remember at Tak Bai.

Red Poetry

Supamok Silarak’s film Red Poetry (ความกวีสีแดง) will be shown in Chiang Mai this weekend, at a rooftop screening organised by Untitled for Film. The feature-length documentary profiles the activities of performance artist Vitthaya Klangnil, who formed the group Artn’t with fellow student Yotsunthon Ruttapradit. A shorter version—Red Poetry: Verse 1 (เราไป ไหน ได้)—was shown last year at Wildtype 2022.

The documentary, filmed in 2021, shows the level of endurance and commitment Vitthaya invests in his protest art. A durational performance—sitting in front of Chiang Mai’s Tha Pae Gate for nine full days—led to his collapse from exhaustion. In another action, he climbed onto Chiang Mai University’s main entrance, repeatedly slapped himself in the face, and jumped into a pond below. When he reported to the police to answer charges of sedition, he vomited blue paint outside the police station. The film ends with Vitthaya carving “112” into his chest, in protest at the lèse-majesté (article 112) charges he faced after he exhibited a modified version of the Thai flag in 2021.

Red Poetry will be screened on 13th August at Chiang Mai University’s Department of Media Arts and Design, followed by a post-screening discussion with the director. This is its third under-the-radar screening in Chiang Mai, the city in which it was filmed: it was previously shown at Chiang Mai University Art Center and at Suan Anya. There are currently no plans to show it in Bangkok, where it might attract unwanted attention. It would almost certainly be cut or banned if submitted to the censors, not least because in one sequence, during the Tha Pae Gate performance, Vitthaya and a royalist passerby debate the hypothetical scenario of Thailand as a republic.

Blood Is Blood

In 2018, artist Stuart Semple created screen printing ink with trace elements of blood donated by gay men, which he used to print Blood Is Blood t-shirts with the slogan “THIS SHIRT IS PRINTED WITH THE BLOOD OF GAY MEN.” Last year, Semple began selling tins of the screen print ink itself, along with bottles of pen ink and acrylic paint, and canisters of spray paint, all containing traces of blood.

Bloody Art

Numerous artists have used blood as a medium recently, including Kristian von Hornsleth, Tameka Norris, Vincent Castiglia, Elito Circa, Ryan Almighty, Julia Fox, Axel, Ruby Martinez, Vinicius Quesada, and Maxime Taccardi. Andrei Molodkin uses blood to create sculptures and portraits satirising political figures. Pamela Schilderman (Ecology Now) used her blood and other bodily fluids to raise awareness of ecological damage. John O’Shea (Black Market Pudding) made black puddings from blood extracted from live pigs.

Products containing blood have also been commercially released, albeit in limited quantities. Tony Hawk sold Liquid Death skateboards decorated with paint containing his blood, and Nil Nas X sold Satan Shoes, modified Nike trainers containing a drop of his blood. Five albums have been released on blood-filled vinyl: Shout at the Devil (by Mötley Crüe), Maniacult (by Aborted), the Carrion soundtrack (by Cris Velasco), The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends (by The Flaming Lips) and the Friday the 13th soundtrack (by Harry Manfredini, rereleased by Waxwork Records). Gamnad737’s album Lets Kill [sic] was released on a blood-splattered CD.

Breaking Taboos

The most powerful artistic uses of blood have been attempts to destigmatise the blood of gay men. Semple’s ink and paint project was a protest against the ban on sexually active gay men donating blood in America. R.J. Arkhipov (Visceral) wrote poetry in blood to highlight the UK’s equally discriminatory blood donation restrictions. The magazines Audio Kultur (‘audio culture’) and Vangardist printed issues with blood donated by HIV+ men. Jordan Eagles has created installations (Blood Mirror and Blood Equality) from blood donated by gay men.

Menstrual blood has been tabooed for centuries. Artists including Ingrid Berthon-Moine, Portia Munson, Jen Lewis (Beauty in Blood), Christen Clifford (I Want Your Blood), and Sarah Levy have painted with their menstrual blood to challenge the taboo and normalise menstruation. In Levy’s case, she painted a menstrual blood portrait of Donald Trump, in reference to his sexist comment that journalist Megyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her—wherever”.

Thai Art and Politics

Several Thai artists have painted with blood. Pornprasert Yamazaki has shown his blood paintings at three exhibitions: Suicide Mind, Currency Crisis, and Swallow. Darisa Karnpoj (Vein/Vain) painted portraits in blood diluted with water. Kosit Juntaratip (Allergic Realities) used his blood to reproduce iconic news photographs. Manit Sriwanichpoom (Died on 6th October) soaked autopsy photographs in blood to commemorate the victims of state violence.

Blood has also been used by political protesters in Thailand. Protesters from Thalu Wang sprayed the Pheu Thai headquarters with pig’s blood after the party withdrew from Move Forward’s anti-military coalition. Thalufah splashed pig’s blood onto a sign at the Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction headquarters, in protest at the policies of health minister Anutin Charnvirakul. United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship protesters painted pro-democracy banners in blood and wrapped them around the Democracy Monument.

Portrait Gallery

The upper-left image is a digital portrait by Tanawin Aimla-or from this month, and on the upper-right is a digital portrait by Napasin Samkaewcham from earlier this year. Below these are two older digital portraits: in the lower-left is another picture by Napasin, from last year; and in the lower-right is one by Nathapong Samarngkay from 2021.

The Colors of October

The Colors of October: 50 Years of 14th October, 50 Artists (สีสันแห่งเดือนตุลา ห้าสิบปีสิบสี่ตุลา ห้าสิบศิลปิน) opens at g23 in Bangkok on 29th July. The exhibition marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 14th October 1973 protest and massacre, with works by fifty contemporary artists, and runs until 30th August. Surprisingly, the participating artists (with only one exception, Chokchai Tukpoe) do not depict the events of the protest itself, nor do they refer—even symbolically—to the violence of the event. Instead, there are numerous paintings of bucolic landscapes, plants, and clouds.

In October 1973, a group of students campaigned against military corruption after a decade of dictatorial rule by Thanom Kittikachorn. A dozen campaigners were arrested, prompting a rally at Democracy Monument by 2,000 Thammasat University students calling for their release. Within a week, the number had swelled to 500,000 people, the largest mass protest in Thai history. King Rama IX indicated his support for the movement, and assured protest leader Seksan Prasertkul that their demands would be met. The protest was successful, as Thanom was dismissed as prime minister and sent into exile, though the military shot and killed seventy-seven protesters.

The last exhibition commemorating the massacre, 14 ตุลา ผ่านสายตาศิลปิน (‘14th October through artists’ eyes’), was held on the thirtieth anniversary of the event. That exhibition featured only seven artists, though several of the works on show were produced in the immediate aftermath of the massacre and commented directly on the tragedy that unfolded. These included Tang Chang’s haunting self-portrait of the artist’s bloodstained face and chest; and Pratuang Emjaroen’s Dhama and Adhama (ธรรมะ-อธรรม), which depicts bullet holes on the face of the Buddha.

Desire

Ohm Phanphiroj’s new photography exhibition Desire opened today at VS Gallery in Bangkok. The exhibition is split into two parts, on different floors of the gallery, and runs until 1st October (extended from 23rd August). (Desire is also the title of a DVD compilation of Ohm’s erotic short films, including the explicit The Meaning of It All.) On the ground floor are Ohm’s nude portraits of fashion model Nicholas Mamedia, collectively titled Desejo, para Nico (‘desire, for Nico’), the artist’s visual expressions of desire for his muse.

On the upper floor, the dynamic is reversed, as the photographer—or his feminine alter ego—becomes the object of desire. For this series, Gina’s Journey, Ohm took a self-portrait as a ladyboy, known as Gina. (Almost exactly a century earlier, Marcel Duchamp created his own female persona, Rrose Sélavy.) Posing as Gina online, Ohm solicited nude photos from dozens of bi-curious men, whose selfies are now on display.

Ohm’s work has always been controversial—his video Underage was withdrawn from another Bangkok gallery a few years ago—and Desire is no exception. The images submitted by Gina’s unwitting admirers raise privacy issues. Many of them are also incredibly graphic: Desire is one of only a few exhibitions in Bangkok to feature such sexually explicit content, the others being Shotbyly’s Boy x Therapy, Thunska Pansittivorakul’s Life Show (เปลือยชีวิต), and Tada Varich’s Story of the Eye.

BangLee Everything Everywhere

BangLee Everything Everywhere, a retrospective of works by Anuwat Apimukmongkon opened at the Head High Second Floor gallery in Chiang Mai on 18th March. The exhibition has since been extended, and now runs until 8th July (significantly later than its original closing date of 29th April). Anuwat paints self-portraits of his alter ego BangLee in a variety of styles—such as Cubism and Impressionism—imitating major modern artists like Picasso and Klimt. He has also copied photographer Manit Sriwanichpoom’s Horror in Pink (ปีศาจสีชมพู) series, by inserting himself into news photographs of the 6th October 1976 and ‘Black May’ 1992 massacres.

One particular image from 1976, taken by photojournalist Kraipit Phanvut, shows police colonel Watcharin Niamvanichkul aiming his pistol while nonchalantly smoking a cigarette. Anuwat, Manit, and other Thai artists have produced numerous parodies of this photograph. Spanky Studio superimposed a clown’s head over Watcharin’s face. In Déjà vu (เดจาวู), Headache Stencil replaced the pistol with a futuristic ray gun. For his Selfie Series (เซลฟี่ ซีรีย์), Chumpol Kamwanna depicted himself taking a selfie while adopting the same pose as Watcharin. The pose was also restaged in Anocha Suwichakornpong’s film By the Time It Gets Dark (ดาวคะนอง) and View from the Bus Tour’s music video Sun Rises When Day Breaks (ลิ่วล้อ). Pornpimon Pokha’s Hidden Agenda No. 5 (วาระซ่อนเร้น หมายเลข 5) recreated the image in watercolour.

Boy x Therapy

Shotbyly’s exhibition of male nude photography Boy x Therapy opened on 8th June, though not at a traditional art gallery. Instead, his work is on display at Krubb, one of Bangkok’s gay saunas.

A bathhouse is an appropriate venue for Shotbyly’s homoerotic imagery and, as a semi-private space, it’s able to display his full-frontal photographs. In fact, Boy x Therapy is the most sexually explicit photography exhibition in Bangkok in recent memory, and the only comparable examples are Thunska Pansittivorakul’s Life Show (เปลือยชีวิต) and Tada Varich’s Story of the Eye, both from more than a decade ago.

Shotbyly is a pseudonym for Patthakarn Sadubtham, and his exhibition runs until 14th July. Ten additional photographs have been added since the opening; some postcards are also on display, which are available to buy in a limited edition of eight sets.

Apocalypse Now:The Lost Photo Archive

Photojournalist Chas Gerretsen’s picture of Augusto Pinochet, posing in sunglasses after launching a coup in Chile, is one of the most iconic political portraits. Gerretsen is also known for his work as a stills photographer on the set of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, and his images of that film appear in Apocalypse Now: The Lost Photo Archive. (The book’s subtitle is a publisher’s embellishment, as Gerretsen’s archive is held at the Nederlands Fotomuseum, as seen in the documentary short Dutch Angle: Chas Gerretsen and Apocalypse Now.)

Peter Cowie’s Apocalypse Now: The Book is the definitive guide to the making of the film, though its illustrations look no better than photocopies. The Lost Photo Archive, with its full-page, colour images, is an excellent visual companion to Cowie’s book. Coppola provided a rather ambivalent blurb for The Lost Photo Archive, disputing some of Gerretsen’s recollections—“I don’t remember many of the things talked about in this text quite in the same way”—but he also praised “Chas’s stunning photos”.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, one of the greatest behind-the-scenes films ever made, documents the making of Coppola’s masterpiece. The work of another stills photographer, Steve Schapiro, appears in two books published by Taschen: Taxi Driver and The Godfather Family Album. Hollywood Movie Stills, by Joel W. Finler, is a history of stills photography.

Who? สุเทพ เทือกสุบรรณ(‘who is Suthep Thaugsuban?’)

Who? สุเทพ เทือกสุบรรณ (‘who is Suthep Thaugsuban?’) was published in 2014, at the height of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee protests led by Suthep Thaugsuban. Suthep, a veteran MP, attempted to bring Bangkok to a standstill, laying the groundwork for a military coup. His PDRC also blocked candidates from registering for the 2014 election, and sabotaged the election itself.

The comic book Who? สุเทพ เทือกสุบรรณ is an idealised biography of Suthep, presenting him as a role model for children. If he seems a completely unsuitable subject for such a comic, remember that his anti-democratic protest movement was supported by many middle-class Bangkokians, and their children were presumably the book’s target audience. (Of course, the comic whitewashes Suthep’s reputation for corruption, such as the 1995 land-reform scandal, portraying him as a victim of false accusations.)

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, against whom Suthep campaigned relentlessly, was also involved in a vanity project similar to Who? สุเทพ เทือกสุบรรณ. Thaksin commissioned a series of seven animated cartoons, ตาดูดาวเท้าติดดิน (‘looking at the stars, feet on the ground’), which gave an equally hagiographic account of his life story.