Tawan Wattuya

Since first appearing on the Thai contemporary art scene in 1989, Tawan Wattuya has continuously excelled at translating his provocative social visions into forceful artworks. He uses art as a weapon to break through the conventional image of the society he lives in. His distorted portraits emerge from cut outs of everyday magazines, newspapers, television shows and web sites. Mass communication is for him a playground where the darkest sides of his own culture can be exposed. As Marc Lathuillere puts it: "Every image is a double. The product of a mirror reproduced at high speed by the media. A proliferation that Tawan fully integrated in his previous project, shown in 2005: the head of then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra painted 500 times, divided into 500 different faces exposed in one single room"

Tawan Wattuya reached new levels in the conceptual portrayal of his contemporaries with his work "Siamese Freaks! A modern courtyard of miracles", exhibited in November 2007 at the Numthong Gallery in Bangkok and originally inspired by the world famous figures of the Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng Bunker (1811–1874) who, "discovered" in Bangkok, travelled with Barnum's circus for many years. Due to their fame and the rarity of their condition, the term came to be used as a synonym for conjoined twins.

By using derived forms of their ill image to portray the emblematic figures of contemporary Thailand, Tawan delivers a bright and colourful overview of a decaying society. Politicians,celebrities, porn stars, traditional figures, seen in the mirror of his black and cunning humour, appear as double-faced monsters - leading us to question the mad society who's given them birth.
 
Without falling prey to exoticism or a desire to soften cultural realities, Tawan portrays locals and foreigners in splashes of bright colour, dissecting their flaws and follies with his paintbrush and the self-awareness of a Thai commenting on his peers. 

Much of Tawan's art is an unflinching commentary on Thai society and the individuals who penetrate the public psyche through celebrity or political activity. Numerous well-known faces appear in his paintings including Miss Universe Nathalie Glebova and former prime minister Taksin Shinawatra.

As his curator Myrtille Tibayrenc says, "Ironically ranging political men at the same level as TV pop stars, or even anonymous porn actors, he reveals the "inverted" power of the media".
 

To see some of Tawan Wattuya's work in Europe, please contact GMT+7 art&design Gallery in Brussels: 258 Chaussee d'Ixelles, 1050 Brussels. Tel: +32 484 435 602. Or by mail: gmt7gallery@gmail.com