TAWAN WATTUYA DOCUMENTS STORIES OF INDIVIDUALS WHO QUESTION THE SYSTEMS BUT ARE FORGOTTEN IN THE EXHIBITION KEEP IN THE DARK, EXHIBITED AT THE ART CENTRE, SILPAKORN UNIVERSITY AND CURATED BY KRITSADA DUCHSADEEVANICH
TEXT: VICHAYA MUKDAMANEE
PHOTO COURTESY OF ART CENTRE, SILPAKORN UNIVERSITY
(For Thai, press here)
KEEP IN THE DARK, an exhibition by Tawan Wattuya takes over the Art Centre, Silpakorn University between October 15th and November 27th 2021. With Kritsada Duchsadeevanich as the curator, the exhibition documents stories and identities of individuals whose roles have propelled ideologies that have drawn people to street protests. The works as a whole, convey a phenomena that reflects on attempts and endeavors that have been made to question the system, mindsets and attitudes; questions that are obscured, distorted and forgotten, like a crumpled piece of paper thrown away and kept hidden in the dark. The exhibition talks about exciting stories of hope and fights alongside the feeling of suppression and distress felt once one is made realize that a fraction of history and stories of real people with real life, flesh and hopes (like all of us, no matter how similar or different our hopes are) are being (and probably will be) erased from a society’s perception, memory and eventually conversation.
Tawan Wattuya
Tawan Wattuya is a Thai Contemporary artist whose works have been continuously recognized within the Thai and international art community. Each year, Tawan puts together a great number of solo exhibitions as well as having participated in group exhibitions. He has been invited to showcase his works at several reputable galleries and art festivals such as QUEEN (Tokyo, 2019), HATCH ART PROJECT (Singapore, 2019&2021), and recently selected to feature his works as a part of Bangkok Art Biennale (2020). It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that Tawan is now at the top of the list of Thai artists who are widely known among international collectors and curators. Twenty years since Tawan’s graduation from the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking, KEEP IN THE DARK would be the first time that the works of this Silpakorn Alumni are showcased as a full, solo exhibition on his own university’s campus ground.
His works come in the form of paintings, created using various techniques. Tawan’s artistic process is often spontaneous, with brush strokes and colors freely expressing his artistic identity, executed with less constraint than the artist’s own instinctive modus operandi. The most well-known and memorable genre of his art are the watercolour portraits, some created with real people posing in front of him while some are painted after pictures from the news and media outlets. Tawan’s artistic expression is unique with rich, wet-looking colors, bold and clear brush strokes quickly painting the colors before allowing them to naturally travel and soak into the paper, freely creating details of color stains, drops and smudges. His portraits often contain distorted elements that are obscured and undefined. The artist doesn’t try to convey reality but aims to reflect ‘memories’ and ‘impressions’ that societies are familiar with. With a focus on documenting personalities, gestures and structures of forms at a moment in time, his portraits implicate discussions around sexuality, education, uniform, pop culture, films, etc., particularly the disturbing and upsetting issues that are overlooked or covered up by the people in power.
KEEP IN THE DARK opens for public viewing on October, 14th 2021. The artist and organizer’s intention in choosing this particular date is an unmistakable attempt to remember the repeated, vicious cycle of people’s fights and losses. I walked under an umbrella through the evening rain toward the throne room, the oldest architectural structure of the university’s Tha Pra Palace Campus where the Art Centre is situated to join the opening night. A reservation was required in advance with only limited number of viewers allowed, amidst the ongoing if not worsening COVID-19 situation and in the time when Sipakorn University is surrounded by shipping containers and barbwire. Many people who intended to come to the exhibition couldn’t make it to the opening night since the university’s ground had turned into a restricted entry zone.
There are paintings of people who are a part of the Red Shirt Movement in the United States and the Thalufah movement that the artist documented from his experiences of personally meeting and talking with them. Others are paintings from images through different new outlets, some are still active and continue to promote their political ideologies, some are now in jail, while some seek refuge abroad, and some were lost and haven’t been found. The paintings of marginalized people are simplistically and unceremoniously installed on the walls, doors and windows, like posters or announcements found on the streets, filling practically all the surfaces of the Art Centre’s exhibition rooms.
With political protests and activities are happening more frequently, the obstructions devised and deployed by the government to control people are found scattered around Sanam Lung and the surrounding roadways. Accompanying the scenario are Silpakorn University’s three year long renovation and the major reconstruction of the road in front of the Grand Palace and underground walkway as a part of the plan to welcome tourists from Thailand and countries around the world. Rattanakosin’s most important historical area is now nothing but a no-trespass zone, and people who are granted access are Thai and foreign workers who take turns working on the site, trying to keep up with the construction schedules. And then, there’s an exhibition of paintings of the people who appear in the media as both the ‘leaders’ of political movements and those known as society’s ‘nuisances’. Those who are standing their ground, voicing out and fighting for their ideology and a better future, with unwavering courage and perseverance, inside the art space just across the street from the Grand Palace.