The Grandmaster:After Tang Chang

Vichit Nongnual’s new exhibition The Grandmaster: After Tang Chang (สนทนากับปรมาจารย์ จ่าง แซ่ตั้ง) pays homage to one of Thailand’s greatest modern artists. Using a diverse range of media—acrylic paint, wool, wax, and ceramic—Vichit has produced meticulous recreations of Chang’s works.

One of Chang’s most famous self-portraits, ตัดมือกวี ควักตาจิตรกร (‘cut the poet’s hands, remove the painter’s eyes’), shows the artist symbolically self-mutilated in an anguished reaction to the massacre of pro-democracy protesters that took place on 14th October 1973. Vichit has rendered this monumental oil painting as a woven tapestry, retitled The Grassland.

Chang translated the Chinese novel The True Story of Ah Q (阿Q正傳) into Thai in 1975, though it was banned and burnt along with hundreds of other books in the anti-Communist purges following the 6th October 1976 coup. Vichit has transformed piles of Chang’s books into ceramic sculptures using the Japanese raku firing process, a technique that results in black scorch marks, in a reference to the book-burning of the 1970s. (Sirisak Saengow also created ceramic versions of banned books, in Unforgetting History.)

The Grandmaster opened at La Lanta Fine Art in Bangkok on 11th January, and runs until 26th February. A lavish exhibition catalogue has also been published, featuring an informative essay by Sheryl Gwee. (Since relocating from the Sukhumvit district in 2018, La Lanta has been part of the N22 group of contemporary galleries, which also includes Gallery Ver, Cartel Artspace, and VS Gallery.)

Smell Like Thai Spirit

Smell Like Teen Spirit, a new solo exhibition by graffiti artist Headache Stencil, opened at Rere Khaosan in Bangkok on 20th December last year. The exhibition, whose title is a pun on the Nirvana song Smells Like Teen Spirit, runs until 4th February.

One of the highlights is Cheese or Shroom, screenprints of Thaksin Shinawatra’s face in various colours. The initial series featured yellow and blue polka-dotted prints, representing the cheese and mushrooms of the title. The artist has also added red and white versions, and Thaksin has agreed to sign the red edition before it’s sold.

Headache Stencil’s real name is Pang-samornnon Yaem-uthai. His previous exhibitions in Bangkok include Thailand Casino, Do or Die, and Propaganda Children’s Day (วันเด็กชั่งชาติ). His one-day group exhibition Uncensored was followed by Uncensored 2 in Chiang Mai and a longer exhibition also titled Uncensored (ศิลปะปลดปล่อย).

Headache Stencil’s work is featured in two books on Thai graffiti artists: Bangkok Street Art and Bangkok Street Art and Graffiti (สตรีทอาร์ตกับกราฟฟิตีในกรุงเทพฯ). The Faith of Graffiti was the first study of graffiti as an art form, and Trespass is a global history of street art.

To a Friend I Have Never Met

Today is New Year’s Eve, though lèse-majesté suspects, and those who have fled the country to avoid lèse-majesté charges, are unable to celebrate with their families. Chatchawal Thongjun, director of From Forest to City (อรัญนคร), has made a new short film for the new year dedicated to lèse-majesté prisoners: To a Friend I Have Never Met (แด่เพื่อนที่ไม่รู้จัก).

The documentary shows footage of protesters campaigning for the release of Arnon Nampa and all other political prisoners, while its soundtrack is a conversation about the plight of those in self-exile who are unable to return to Thailand. The speakers compare the dire situation to dystopian fiction: “It’s as hard as in Squid Game [오징어 게임]. If you want to stay here you have to bow your head and respect them. No questions allowed. No doubts allowed. Because otherwise, it’ll be like in 1984.”

With its compassionate focus on the plight of those charged with lèse-majesté, To a Friend I Have Never Met is similar to Koraphat Cheeradit’s Yesterday Is Another Day, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Ashes, and Vichart Somkaew’s Contemporary Thai Political Trilogy (ไตรภาคการเมืองร่วมสมัยไทย). (Thai Cinema Uncensored discusses the impact of the lèse-majesté law on Thai filmmakers, and their responses to it.)

Fall

Nipan Oranniwesna’s solo exhibition Fall was held at Jing Jai Gallery in Chiang Mai, from 1st March to 2nd June. The exhibition included several works from 2020 that refer to events leading up to the 6th October 1976 massacre at Thammasat University. An installation from the exhibition, Then, One Morning, They Were Found Dead and Hanged, was previously shown at the Thailand Biennale in Chiang Rai.

Then, One Morning, They Were Found Dead and Hanged dominated the gallery floor, with capital letters carved from teakwood that read “THEN, ONE MORNING, THEY WERE FOUND DEAD AND HANGED. IT WAS LATER ESTABLISHED, THAT THEY WERE DONE TO DEATH BEFORE THEY WERE HUNG.” This text refers to Choomporn Thummai and Vichai Kasripongsa, two men who were hanged by police from a gate in Nakhon Pathom on 25th September 1976, after they campaigned against military dictator Thanom Kittikachorn’s return from exile.

Thammasat students staged a reenactment of the hanging on 4th October 1976, and the right-wing Dao Siam (ดาวสยาม) newspaper reported this on its front page two days later, with a photograph of one of the students, Apinan Buahapakdee. Apinan bore a slight and coincidental resemblance to King Vajiralongkorn, who was Crown Prince at the time, and the newspaper accused the students of “แขวนคอหุ่นเหมือนเจ้าฟ้าชาย” (‘burning the Crown Prince in effigy’). It was this incendiary and false headline that led vigilante groups to storm the campus.

Nipan’s teakwood text appears on painted clouds, which are based on a photograph taken by the artist on 24th June 2020, the anniversary of Thailand’s 1932 transition to a constitutional monarchy. This metaphorical reference—the sky as an indirect allusion to the monarchy—has also been employed by other artists: t_047’s single ไม่มีคนบนฟ้า (‘no one in the sky’), Jirat Prasertsup’s exhibition Our Daddy Always Looks Down on Us (คิดถึงคนบนฟ้า), and Wittawat Tongkeaw’s installation Creation-Conclusion (เริ่ม-จบ). Wittawat commented on the metaphor with the title of his painting It’s Just the Sky, Nothing More.

The gate from which the two activists were hanged was rediscovered by Patporn Phoothong in 2017. A photograph of the gate (simply titled Gate) was also part of Fall, shown alongside framed reproductions of a twelve-page account of the Thammasat massacre—titled Ungpakorn [sic]—typed by Puey Ungphakorn (a former rector at Thammasat) on 25th November 1976.

Patporn made a short documentary about the case, The Two Brothers (สองพนอง), and exhibited the gate itself at Thammasat in 2019. A split-second image of the gate appears in Tewprai Bualoi’s short film Friendship Ended with Mudasir Now Salman Is My Best Friend (มิตรภาพสิ้นสุดกับ Mudasir ตอนนี้ Salman คือเพื่อนที่ดีที่สุดของฉัน). The gate has inspired several paintings, including Jirapatt Aungsumalee’s ประตูแดง (‘red gate’) and Pachara Piyasongsoot’s What a Wonderful World, and the poster Just Because You Can’t See It, Doesn’t Mean It Didn’t Happen.

Oblivion: The Original Texts

The short film Oblivion: The Original Texts (เลือน: บทประพันธ์ดั้งเดิม), a collage of found footage woven into a magical realist allegory, begins with the sound of gunshots, stills from the recent film Taklee Genesis (ตาคลี เจเนซิส), and a voiceover in which a student, Burindh, describes the 1976 massacre at Thammasat University: “A gunshot has been fired. Sending its vibrating wave upon my chest.”

As the poetic voiceover continues, the narrator recalls how he fled not only from the Thammasat campus but from Bangkok itself, which “is not the city of the people. It is not the city of ordinary people”. (These lines are juxtaposed with vintage newsreel footage of the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall and the Grand Palace, symbolic buildings that have also featured in some of the director’s previous short films.)

As he escapes from his attackers, Burindh asks: “if I don’t possess this ideology that’s different than them, would they still aim their bullets at me?” The question is as relevant now as it was in 1976, as riot police fired rubber bullets at student protesters in 2021 and 2022. The film uses footage of a protest against Ampon Tangnoppakul’s conviction for lèse-majesté, taken from the short film Ashes, to hint at the ideology of Burindh and the recent protesters.

In 1976, a prominent monk, Kittivuddho Bhikku, pronounced that killing Communists was equivalent to merely catching fish, in a signal to the royalist vigilante groups who stormed the Thammasat campus a few months later. Images of fish in the documentary The Terrorists (ผู้ก่อการร้าย) were metaphors for the monk’s comments, though Oblivion goes a stage further: Burindh transforms into a goby fish and swims away from Bangkok.

Burindh’s metamorphosis is similar to that of Boonsong, the monkey spirit in Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ), another student who fled from persecution and transformed into an animal. Burindh meets Boonsong, his (literal) kindred spirit, who reassures him that his memories (and, by implication, Thailand’s political traumas) will not be forgotten as long as they are retold.

Oblivion is the latest of more than fifty films that refer to the Thammasat massacre. (The previous examples are discussed in Thai Cinema Uncensored.) It was directed under the pseudonym Burindh the Golden Goby, and it will be followed by Oblivion: The Non-human Interpretation, which will be shown next year as part of Bangkok Design Week.

Unleashed

Boris Johnson’s memoir Unleashed is almost 800 pages long, though there are only a handful of genuinely interesting passages amid the self-congratulatory prose. The most curious of these is an anecdote implying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planted a bug in the UK Foreign Secretary’s private bathroom: Johnson writes that Netanyahu used the room during a visit to the Foreign Office, and that during a subsequent security sweep “they found a listening device in the thunderbox.”

Johnson is clearly aware of his reputation, characterising himself in his opponents’ eyes as “the monstruous Johnson, the beast of Brexit and the big bullshitting bus, the Pied Piper who played the devil’s tunes and led the people to perdition.” He later describes the Vote Leave campaign bus as “the great red bus of truth”, just one of numerous misleading and unretracted claims about the European Union. When he decided to campaign for Brexit, he says that David Cameron told him: “I will fuck you up forever.”

He acknowledges making “many goofs”, though he is unrepentant about his major failings. He refuses to accept the Supreme Court’s ruling that his prorogation of parliament was illegal, and nicknames Brenda Hale “Spiderwoman” after a brooch she wore while reading the judgement. He is also unapologetic about ‘partygate’, and in fact he now regrets the “rather pathetic apologies” he made at the time. Despite a Privileges Committee report accusing him of repeatedly lying to the House of Commons, he insists that he “hadn’t misled Parliament, certainly not intentionally,” and calls the committee members “my enemies.” This is a consistent theme, as he also blames his partygate fine on people “determined to bring me down.”

Anthony Seldon’s Johnson at Ten is a much more objective account of Johnson’s premiership (as is Tim Shipman’s new book Out), and Sebastian Payne’s The Fall of Boris Johnson is a detailed study of the final months of the Johnson government. The other recent memoirs by former UK prime ministers are A Journey by Tony Blair, My Life, Our Times by Gordon Brown, For the Record by David Cameron, and two less conventional examples: The Abuse of Power by Theresa May and Ten Years to Save the West by Liz Truss.

“ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump...”

ABC News has agreed to pay Donald Trump $15 million in an out-of-court settlement, after he sued the organisation for defamation earlier this year. Trump filed a lawsuit against ABC News and one of its anchors, George Stephanopoulos, when Stephanopoulos asked Republican politician Nancy Mace on air why she had endorsed Trump as a presidential candidate despite Trump having been “found liable for rape.”

Stephanopoulos interviewed Mace on This Week, in a segment broadcast on 10th March. He began the interview with a reference to a civil prosecution in which Trump was found guilty of sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll: “You’ve endorsed Donald Trump for president. Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury. Donald Trump has been found liable for defaming the victim of that rape. It’s been affirmed by a judge.”

Mace, who is herself a rape victim, stated that she found the premise of the interview “disgusting.” Stephanopoulos again asked her to justify her endorsement of Trump: “I’m asking a question about why you endorsed someone who’s been found liable for rape.” Mace accused Stephanopoulos of victim-shaming her, and Stephanopoulos attempted to clarify: “I’m questioning your political choices, because you’re supporting someone who’s been found liable for rape.”

Stephanopoulos then pressed Mace again to answer his initial question: “why are you supporting someone who’s been found liable for rape?” She replied that the question was offensive, to which Stephanopoulos responded: “You don’t find it offensive that Donald Trump has been found liable for rape?”

Trump’s libel claim hinged on the fact that he was convicted of sexually assaulting Carroll, rather than raping her. His lawsuit quoted Stephanopoulos on previous broadcasts referring to sexual assault, in an attempt to prove that Stephanopoulos was aware of the distinction and had used the word ‘rape’ in the combative Mace interview either recklessly or maliciously.

Trump also sued Carroll for the same reason, after she accused him of rape despite the sexual assault conviction. That lawsuit was dismissed, however, as the judge in the sexual assault case issued a written clarification: “that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was “raped” within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump “raped” her as many people commonly understand the word “rape.” Indeed... the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”

The previous references by Stephanopoulos to sexual assault were all made before 19th July 2023, when the clarification was published. His comments in the Mace interview, however, were made afterwards, so it could reasonably be argued that he was using the term ‘rape’ “as many people commonly understand the word”, as per the judge’s clarification. Nevertheless, ABC settled the case yesterday and issued a cursory statement: “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace”.

Bangkok Through Poster 2024Thailand Postlitical Fiction

The fifth annual Bangkok Through Poster exhibition opened at Kinjai Contemporary in Bangkok yesterday. This year’s theme is Thailand Postlitical Fiction: poster designs for imaginary movies commenting on Thai politics. Sixty-seven posters were selected from works submitted by artists, students, and design studios, and many of the posters are accompanied by synopses for the fictitious films they illustrate.

A handful of posters in the exhibition refer to past political violence. One example is a spoof horror film titled Cursed Siam (สาปสยาม) by Canyouhearcloud, referencing the 6th October 1976 massacre at Thammasat University. Two posters refer to the 2010 crackdown at Ratchaprasong: All the Light We Can(not) See by Wonderwhale Studio (which uses candles to represent the red-shirt victims), and Animal Sanctuary by Chonlatorn Wongrussamee (which emphasises the killing of wounded protesters sheltering at Wat Pathum Wanaram). Two posters—More Conceal, More Reveal (ยิ่งปกปิด ยิ่งเปิดเผย) by Deepend Studio, and Unfortunately by Njorvks—highlight former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s statement that “unfortunately, some people died” at Ratchaprasong. Kawinnate Konklong’s short film Unfortunately (แค่วันที่โชคร้าย), released last year, also refers to Abhisit’s dismissive comment.

Most of the posters, however, focus on more recent events. Thaksin Shinawatra and his daughter Paetongtarn (the current Prime Minister) are the most common theme, featuring on ten posters: The Missing (You Too Much) (ผมคิดถึงคุณ) by Setthawuth K. (a spoof of The Shining), The Chair of the Promise Land [sic] by Genji Kun, The Zone of Shinnawatra [sic] by Nam.Ni.Ang, The Successor by Gaw Chutima, Hereditary by Kritsaran Hanamonset, The Loop by Thalufah, The Invisible Storm by Antizeptic, The Landslider by Sina Wittayawiroj (a diptych inspired by The Lobster), and Closing the Scenes (ปิดฉาก) by Thiraphon Singlor.

The student protest movement inspired almost as many posters as the Shinawatras, including Chorn Yuan’s A Smile. There are two that refer to 16th October 2020, when riot police used water cannon to disperse protesters at Siam Square: 16 10 63 by PrachathipaType, and Sky Flood, Stars Fall (น้ำท่วมฟ้า ปลากินดาว) by Tnop Design. Panita Siriwongwan-ngarm’s Here at Din Daeng Police Station, a Boy Named Varit Died (ที่นี่ (สน.ดินแดง) มีคน ตาย ชื่อ ด.ช.วาฤทธิ์) honours a 15-year-old boy who was shot at a protest in 2021.

Protest leader Arnon Nampa appears in two posters: The Lawyer Devil (ทนายปีศาจ) by Shake and Bake Studio, and The Letter (จดหมายรัก) by Tanis Werasakwong (known as Sa-ard). The Letter refers to letters he wrote to his family from prison, as does Vichart Somkaew’s short film The Letter from Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ), released this year. Arnon’s fellow protest leader Parit Chirawak features in The Penguin 112 by director Chaweng Chaiyawan (a reference to Parit’s nickname and the lèse-majesté charges he faces).

Article 112 also inspired perhaps the strongest poster in the exhibition, Pssyppl’s Lèse-majesté, which depicts blue figures strangling red ones with nooses, a comment on the maliciousness and severity of lèse-majesté prosecutions. Bangkok Through Poster 2024 runs until 22nd December, and Neti Wichiansaen’s documentary Democracy after Death (ประชาธิปไตยหลังความตาย) will be shown on the final day of the exhibition. (The film was also screened in Chiang Mai last year and in 2022.)

Sarit Thanarat

Sarit Thanarat, military prime minister during the Cold War, died in December 1963. After his death, the floodgates opened, and exposés of his love life were rushed into print. His lovenest was a private residence nicknamed the ‘pink palace’ (วิมานสีชมพู), and this was the title of a Sarit biography published in 1964, which included a dossier of photographs of Sarit’s alleged lovers. Several erotic novels of the period, including แม่ม่ายผ้าขะม้าแดง (‘red-headed widow’), were also thinly-veiled portrayals of Sarit’s mistresses.

Almost fifty years later, the phrase ‘pink palace’ was censored by Channel 3 when it broadcast the lakorn คุณชายพุฒิภัทร (‘khun Chai Puttipat’) on 5th May 2013. In the third episode, a former military general played by Montree Jenuksorn (who slightly resembles Sarit) discussed his ‘pink palace’, though the sound was muted, presumably to avoid any possibility of a libel suit from Sarit’s descendents. (The novel on which the drama was based refers to Sarit more obliquely.)

Potential defamation also prevented director Banjong Kosallawat from making a planned Sarit biopic in 2002, which was to have been titled จอมพล (‘marshal’). Sarit did feature briefly in the horror movie Zee Oui (ซี-อุย), ordering the swift execution of the murderous title character for political expediency. And Sarit’s statue looms ominously over the characters in Song of the City, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s segment of the portmanteau film Ten Years Thailand.

After Sarit led a coup in 1957, he was portrayed as a hero by pliant newspaper cartoonists. One example of such propaganda showed Sarit cradling a rescued child in his arms, returning the boy (who represents the Thai people) to his grateful mother. In contrast, a July 1958 cartoon in the liberal ประชาชน (‘people’) newspaper depicted Sarit as a monkey wrapping his tail possessively around Democracy Monument. Sixty years later, in the wake of the 2014 coup, Sarit satire was too sensitive, and the Guerrilla Boys self-censored their mural Junta Connection (วิ่งผลัดเผด็จการ), which originally depicted Sarit passing his (literal) baton of dictatorship to Prayut Chan-o-cha.

Art and Culture (ศิลปวัฒนธรรม) magazine analysed cartoonists’ caricatures of Sarit (vol. 43, no. 1), and the journal Same Sky (ฟ้าเดียวกัน) examined the lurid books published shortly after his death (vol. 20, no. 2). Thai Cinema Uncensored discusses the portrayal of Sarit in Thai films.

Bangkok Breaking: Heaven and Hell

Kongkiat Khomsiri’s Netflix series Bangkok Breaking—a drama about rivalries among the EMS ‘body snatchers’ who transport accident victims to hospital—was released in 2021. Earlier this year, he adapted the series into a film, Bangkok Breaking: Heaven and Hell (ฝ่านรกเมืองเทวดา), which is also streaming on Netflix.

The film’s prologue is probably its most effective sequence. A slum neighbourhood has been purchased by the corrupt head of an EMS foundation, who has plans to redevelop it into luxury accommodation. The residents protest against their eviction, and are brutally beaten by riot police with batons. A TV reporter at the scene tells her audience: “The city is in chaos. It’s like a battlefield here.”

The scene—filmed on an impressive outdoor set without GCI—escalates as protesters, and even monks who have joined the demonstration, are shot dead by police snipers. A news bulletin reports that “the police fired real bullets at the protesters.” The violence is bloody, and a reminder that Kongkiat also directed the intense thriller Slice (เฉือน).

The protest that opens Heaven and Hell echoes the real-life demonstrations against the military government that took place in Bangkok a few years ago, particularly the violent clashes at Viphavadi Rangsit Road throughout August 2021. In fact, the film even features a protest sign reading “เผด็จการ” (‘dictator’), and one character has “Fuck Government” written on his chest.

If Kongkiat’s film had received a theatrical release, it would potentially have been censored for its depiction of police killing protesters with live bullets. Film censorship was controlled by the police department from 1972—following a decree by Thanom Kittikachorn’s junta—until the Film and Video Act of 2008. (Thai Cinema Uncensored discusses the severe restrictions imposed on films portraying the police.)

Paetongtarn Shinawatra:“I feel relieved and happy...”

The Constitutional court today declined to investigate former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who had been accused of influencing the governing Pheu Thai Party. A petition to the court made several allegations, including that Thaksin had used his access to Pheu Thai to gain special privileges during his detention in a police hospital, that he ordered Pheu Thai to expel Palang Pracharath from the coalition government, and that he had an undue influence on the selection of the current PM following the removal of Srettha Thavisin.

The court unanimously dismissed these claims, which seems remarkable given that the Prime Minister is Thaksin’s daughter Paetongtarn. (In an interview with Time magazine on 17th April last year, she said: “I’ve always been daddy’s little girl. So I consult with him about almost everything”.) Yet Pheu Thai has somehow avoided the fate of its predecessors Thai Rak Thai, the People Power Party, and Thai Raksa Chart, all of which have been dissolved by the court in previous years.

The court also ruled today that it would not investigate Pheu Thai on sedition charges, although it dissolved the Move Forward Party for sedition earlier this year. Thaksin and Pheu Thai clearly gained brownie points from the military establishment by excluding Move Forward from the ruling coalition last year, and it seems that Thaksin’s political roles—his behind-the-scenes influence and public campaigning—are still being tolerated. This afternoon, after the court’s announcement, a visibly moved Paetongtarn told reporters: “I feel relieved and happy”.

Priyanandana Rangsit v. Nattapoll Chaiching

The Civil Court has dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed in 2021 by the aristocrat Priyanandana Rangsit against the historian Nattapoll Chaiching and his publisher, Same Sky Books. Nattapoll is the author of the bestselling ขุนศึก ศักดินา และพญาอินทรี (‘feudal warlords and the eagle’). His earlier book ขอฝันใฝ่ในฝันอันเหลือเชื่อ (‘I dream an incredible dream’) also saw a revival in sales after it was among five titles seized by police from the offices of Same Sky.

On 5th March 2021, aristocrat Priyanandana Rangsit sued Nattapoll and Same Sky for defamation, seeking ฿50 million in damages. According to the lawsuit, Nattapoll’s books incorrectly assert that her grandfather, Prince Rangsit Prayurasakdi, sought an improper political influence over Phibun Songkhram’s government in the 1940s. She argued that this allegation about her long-dead ancestor tarnished her family name, and was thus defamatory to her personally.

Yesterday, the court came to the obvious conclusion that Prince Rangsit, having died in 1951, was not affected by the content of Nattapoll’s books. In the court’s judgement, Priyanandana’s legal case was therefore invalid from the beginning. This ruling is hardly surprising, though more questionable is the fact that it took almost four years for such a spurious case to be dismissed.