Art of war
When five soldiers took a stroll down Sathon last Thursday to catch up on the latest art exhibitions in town, they stumbled on Paphonsak La-or’s “Far From Home” series at Artist + Run Gallery on Narathiwas 22.
“What’s that?” the soldiers reportedly asked gallerist Angkrit Ajchariyasophon.
“Just landscape paintings,” he answered, showing off the lifelike mountain views that hung on his gallery’s walls — in reality the artist’s reflection on the condition of Thai political exiles since the 2014 military coup.
And so, thanks to their art (il)literacy, soldiers — one in uniform, the others in plainclothes — left the grounds. But other artists weren’t as lucky.
In adjacent galleries VER and Cartel Artspace, the officers left a trail of blank spaces behind them, having pressured photographers Harit Srikhao and Tada Hengsapkul to take out some or the totality of their works.
Tada, whose exhibition “The Shards Would Shatter At Touch” was scheduled to run until Thursday, removed his installation completely on June 15, in the hours that followed the soldiers’ initial visit.
His work consisted of portraits of political prisoners and human rights activists (most were targeted by the military at some point) that would appear only when in contact with heat.
Apparently, Tada’s special trick — the use of thermochromic paint to achieve this effect — wasn’t enough to spare him censorship.
Cartel Arstpace, the gallery that hosted Tada’s work, was closed when the officers arrived in the morning. While the staff was busy fetching the keys to the building, the soldiers wandered off next door and into Harit’s exhibition “Whitewash”.
It appears t hat Harit’s hallucinatory photographs, dealing with the concealment and distortion of truth regarding the May 2010 protests and their suppression, were not to their liking either. The young artist, hit by a stroke of bad luck since he wasn’t even their prime subject of inspection, was asked to remove three of the photographs in his exhibition that were deemed too sensitive.
Tada meanwhile chose to tear down his entire display before the military returned the same day to check on their work. Now the gallery shows only empty white space.
That soldiers could roam galleries, point their fingers and order artworks to be taken off the walls without any warrant or justification other than “inappropriateness” is alarming.
It’s not the first time that the military regime has attempted to critique art and to set indisputable standards of beauty and propriety. Performances have been monitored, film screenings and seminars banned, 12 values promoted.
And every time a work of art is ordered off a wall, it’s a blow to our cultural diversity.