STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND
Joan Cornellà of Spain brings his unique artistic perspective to Thailand
‘Bangkok, today I’ll be signing books at 7pm,” wrote Joan Cornellà last Saturday to his 4.7 million fans on Facebook. The message was paired with a painting of a smiling woman forming a heart with her two hands. In between her hands are the words “F*CK OFF”. It received more than 8,300 Likes, Loves and Hahas — something that only he can pull off.
If you haven’t heard through the fanfare and countless articles published last week, the much-loved controversial Spanish artist is back in Bangkok with his second solo-exhibition, “Happy Endings”. Organised by Farm Group and housed on the 2nd and 5th floors of Sala Daeng Soi 1’s Woof Pack building until Dec 3, Cornellà is exhibiting over 80 of his satirical artworks to the dark-humoured souls of Thailand.
“I didn’t expect that many people coming,” he said — referring to his outrageously successful first solo exhibition in Bangkok last year. Cornellà, 37, now rocking a shorter haircut as well as a shorter beard, is now looking much younger than the year before. “It was my first time in Bangkok and I didn’t know anything about this place and everything was new. I thought people wouldn’t relate to the art that much.”
Masked in bright colours and empty smiles, Cornellà’s comics can be vile, controversial and politically incorrect. Drawing and dissecting the bleakness of human nature in unconventional scenarios which involve the topics of suicide, killing children and police brutality, his satirical twist renders these horrid topics absolutely hilarious. Thais, for some reason, have been completely smitten with his works. And Cornellà, so impressed by the country, decided to spend several months living here. Ironically, he wouldn’t say what was the most absurd thing he’s seen so far in the Kingdom.
“Absurd? Nah. I don’t know. It sounds like I have an eye to check what’s awkward, but I don’t know,” he said. “For me everything is awkward. Real life can be constantly awkward. The first time I didn’t understand, so whenever you go to a place for the first time, you don’t understand many things, but I wouldn’t talk about weird things.
“Thailand, as someone who comes from the Western world, can be shocking for the first time. But you have a lot of tourism and I can find that it has something in common with Barcelona, where I live and come from ... I think you need more time to check those differences — real differences between Western countries and Thailand.”
Spending time in Thailand, the country’s unique visual language started to organically seep into his work. There’s a painting of an injured man next to a dented green-and-yellow taxi, a lady in a Thai costume riding a human motorcycle taxi, and a high-school boy in uniform crooning to a girl in university uniform.
“I’ve been working a lot this past month and I’ve been doing many artworks here in Bangkok, and somehow they’re related to Bangkok,” he said. “[The Taxi piece is] the most-liked post [of mine] on Instagram ever, and it’s about Thailand. It’s kind of fun for me to have some work related to Thailand. I prefer not to do that. I prefer my works to be more global than local, but for the exhibitions people last year talked about it. They appreciate if you do something related to the place — they feel like they have more fun.”
What’s interesting about Cornellà’s works is that it’s Asian countries like Hong Kong, China and Thailand that’s come to love his dark-humoured works unlike anywhere else.
“I don’t know why,” he said. “I’m trying to figure it out and understand why. So far, what I’ve heard is that in China or Hong Kong, what the people told me is that they’re not allowed to express that much, so it’s a kind of relief, or a kind of way to be in touch with stories. It’s difficult to explain. It’s like someone can say something that they’re not allowed to say or express. I guess it’s true somehow, right? If you’re in Europe or the US, there’s more freedom of expression.”
Diving into this topic further, Cornellà’s lower popularity in Western countries may be due to political correctness as well — something he simply can’t stand.
“In that sense, the US is the worst place on earth,” he said. “I went there and it was really shocking to meet these amount of people who are really politically correct. You talk to them and you cannot say certain words, you can’t show certain behaviours — especially words. In the US they have a lot of free speech and it’s one of the [Constitutional] amendments, so it’s supposed to be one of the big things they defend! And it comes from the left, which is kind of shocking to me, because I consider myself leftist, and in Europe it’s not considered this way. Here [in Thailand] you can’t talk about three main things. But it’s more easy-going, I think, in many ways.”
Cornellà, though, isn’t your typical tourist and does realise the troubles and politics that Thailand goes through. Still, he finds the country a great place to unwind and relax, and the kindness of the people is an added bonus.
With his deeper connection with the country, is he thinking of retiring here?
“Yeah, but then I see these old guys. White privileged old guys with [ laughs] young ladies, and I’m not sure if I should do that, and feel guilty about having white privilege anyway. For the moment I don’t know what’s next. Maybe I’ll rest for a while because I’ve been doing exhibitions since last year. Maybe I need more time to work instead of show, which sometimes I think is good for the work itself. I don’t know yet.”
I’ve been doing many artworks here in Bangkok, and somehow they’re related to Bangkok