THE SCULPTOR
The moment on Nov 13, 1955, when King Bhumibol bent down to accept three withering lotuses from 102-year-old Tum Chantanit is one of the defining images of his reign. For Watchara Prayoonkum, it was his most difficult sculpture to render. “It was the defining moment of the compassionate king,” said Watchara, 50. “I wanted to reconstruct the moment four times larger than life size to enable people to look at the moment in three dimensions.”
Watchara’s sculpture stands 60cm tall, and he is raising funds to build one six metres high in the hope it can be located near the place where the King reached down to touch the old woman’s hand.
Working from the photograph taken by Annat Bunnag, there were times when Watchara was convinced he would not be able to make it work.
“Initially, I was not keen to do the piece, even as a smaller version. The photograph is iconic, but I thought it might lack the detail needed for a sculpture,” he said.
“A friend of mine urged me to do it because it’s one of the most remembered photographs of King Bhumibol’s reign.” Creating a likeness of the King required close attention to detail. “King Bhumibol is taller than the average Thai,” Watchara said. “He has big, strong hands due to years of woodwork. His neck is large because he played the saxophone. The king has a strong athletic body, a dream model for any sculptor.”
After deciding to take on the project, he found it more complicated than he had thought.
The first challenge was getting the King’s posture right. “I had to sculpt bending over with my chin up in the air.”
Secondly, he was concerned about the position and dimensions of the old woman.
Watchara returned to Chaiyaphum to visit his mother in her eighties and photographed her ensure he had the proportions right.
Showing off the finished sculpture, Watchara said proudly: “This is the most challenging one of my career so far.”
It was a career which began in a time of crisis. He was a civil servant at the Department of Fine Arts during the 1997 economic meltdown when he decided to use his talent to boost national morale.
Having graduated with a degree in painting, sculpture and graphic arts from Silpakorn University, Watchara worked on pieces for the movie The Legend of Suriyothai but had not sculpted anything for exhibition.
During the country’s worst economic crisis in recent memory, a friend encouraged him to do something to give people the strength to fight on.
“My friend told me to make sculptures to remind people of the King’s sufficiency philosophy,” Watchara said.
“That friend urged me to make an exhibition featuring different poses of the King to boost people’s morale and strength.”
The exhibition followed the King’s birthday speech on Dec 4, 1997. When the nation was struggling with the financial collapse, His Majesty urged Thais to rethink their economic model and build immunity against external shocks. He urged the nation to be compassionate, telling the kingdom, “Our loss is our gain.”
Watchara said, “Everyone knows the King like we know the sun. We use symbolism to remind people of the King’s teachings.”
A while later, Watchara spent four weeks in his studio making 10 pieces of the King in different poses to convey various sides of his character. The sculptor did not focus on the realism of the pieces. “It is an art form meant to convey symbolic meaning,” he said.
For instance, one of the pieces shows King Bhumibol working on his sailboat to reflect the concept of immunity from outside threats.
“The King made his own sailboat, hammering every nail. Therefore, he knew what his sailboat was capable of. He knew to what extent it could withstand ocean waves. He knew its strength and weaknesses. It is better than using sailboats made by others,” he said.
Watchara used Plasticine because it was called “oily clay” in Thai, a nod to the name Bhumibol, which translates to “the strength of the earth”.
The exhibition at a private gallery was a success. “Some visitors liked the artistic element of the pieces. Some would cry thinking of the time of the economic crisis.”
Watchara later quit his full-time job to become a professional sculptor. His home studio features several sculptures; most are busts of the King.
“My respect for him motivates me to create sculptures,” he said, adding they enable people to “appreciate art piece in three dimensions, compared to the two dimensions offered by a painting”.
When the six-metre version of his most difficult sculpture is built, Watchara hopes people from all over the country will come to see it for themselves.