RUPERT MANN PUBLISHES A BOOK FEATURING 140 PICTURES OF GRAFFITI THAT SURVEYS THE HISTORY OF BANGKOK’S STREET ART WHILE ILLUSTRATING BANGKOK’S CORRUPTED URBAN DEVELOPMENT, ESPECIALLY THE HOPEWELL PROJECT.
TEXT: PRATARN TEERATADA
PHOTO: KETSIREE WONGWAN
(For Thai, press here)
Rupert Mann
River Books, 2022
6.83 x 1.17 x 9.54 inches
256 pages
Paperback
ISBN 978-6-164-51061-6
Hopewell is a historical “wound,” “nightmare,” and “remnant”. As its name implies, the project was previously envisioned as an infrastructure that would indicate the country’s urban growth was on par with that of the West. Hopewell has sadly become a symbol of the failure of the state, the decline of the economy, the rise of authoritarianism, as well as the corruption that ruins the nation.
The book “BANGKOK STREET ART AND GRAFFITI HOPE FULL, HOPE LESS, HOPE WELL” features 140 pictures of graffiti that tell stories about the city, its abandoned pillars and hidden canals. The strength of the book resides in its content, which is packed with works and conversations with renegade artists such as Bonus TMC that will gratify any street art aficionado. “Hopewell is part of the architectural remains of a bygone age in the country’s history.
Alex Face “Do you know why I paint there? I saw this message written in Thai on one of the pillars: “Let’s paint these pillars have been abandoned for twenty years. If you are an artist,come out here and work. And I was like, ‘Come again?’ I didn’t know who put the sign up there, but I thought, hell yeah, why not? Let’s paint.”
HEADACHE “While I just strive to create my art, graffiti artists would say things like,‘stencil is easy. Anybody can do it.’ If you’ve been following my work, you know that I produce a new piece every week, and the difficulty of each piece grows with each new work. Those people are incapable of achieving what I am doing. And this is how I allow my art to speak for itself.”
Before the making of this book, photographer and expert in architectural and cultural heritage, Rupert Mann, spent five years documenting Bangkok’s graffiti. While the book’s artistic quality is derived from the street art it depicts, it also serves as a historical archive of Bangkok’s urban development as well as the city’s burgeoning street art community and the artists it has spawned.