Sutee aims to appease

ARTIST SUTEE Kunavichayanont is a keen social satirist, so it’s understandable if people hear the title of his latest solo exhibition, “Animal Club”, and think of George Orwell’s politically biting novel “Animal Farm”. But there’s no link or comparison, he’s quick to point out.

“Take it easy!” says the 52-year-old, an art instructor at Silpakorn University. “Nothing in this show is serious and there’s no hidden agenda.” 

As if to further appease some hidden Big Brother, he explains, “I just wanted to play with neon tubes as a form of sculpture!”

On display at the Number 1 Gallery – now moved from Silom Galleria to its own premises on Silom Soi 21 – “Animal Club” features a dozen neon lights bent and folded into the shapes of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. 

It’s a striking change of course for this dyed-in-the-wool political activist, but the story behind his shift in direction is as illuminating as his glowing new sculptures. More on that in a moment, though.

Sutee first painted his animal figures on old round wooden plates and then twisted and welded the neon tubes to fit on top. 

“I wanted to do a series reminiscent of those old-fashioned neon signs. They might remind people of Bangkok 50 years ago, when neon advertising signs were everywhere, before LED lighting took over.” 

Interestingly, the gallery’s new location is the perfect setting. It’s an old, mainly wooden house that had been turned into a wine bar.

“Keeping the pieces simple was actually the bigger challenge,” Sutee says. “I had to study the character of each animal in books and online before deciding on the most appropriate way to delineate each one distinctively – and at the same time maintain my signature style.”

Making the rooster, with its show-off comb and tail feathers, was the most fun, he says. “I could play with different colours and fluid lines. The dragon was the most difficult because it has such an elegant character and I was limited in the amount of detail I could render. 

“I use a Dalmatian for the Year of the Dog, and the rabbit is shown with the moon, like in the moon rabbit of folklore.”

Sutee was born in the Year of the Snake and likely had no trouble at all curling his neon into a spiral. 

He’s worked with both neon and depictions of animals before. In 1999 there was a parade of large, rubber-latex beasts – an elephant, tiger and buffalo. They were actually inflatable, and viewers had to pump them up every time they started to sag, a neat way of reminding people about endangered species and how rapid industrialisation let the air out of the Asian economy in the late 1990s.

In 2010 Sutee’s neon sculptures were part of the Phuket exhibition “Half Truth”. Among the memorable pieces that created action by flicking on and off were a crouching-jumping tiger and a crouching-standing elephant, invoking a country in the midst of turbulence.

The Number 1 Gallery already had a few Sutee pieces, which it’s added to the current show. One from 2009 comprises a pair of lifelike self-portraits in fibreglass. Sutee poses as two muay thai boxers, their respective shorts screened with the words “art” and “life”. Evidently balancing the two involves quite a fight.

From his 2012 exhibition “Crazily Good!” reappear old-fashioned wooden school desks with outlandish images scratched into the lids, Sutee’s way of teasing “Thainess”, the autocracy and the slow pace of social progress. You can make out a bulky farang sitting on top of a petite Thai woman, a Thai boxer knocking the foreigner’s head upside down, and a woman massaging his face with her feet. 

The neon zodiac critters offer no such sarcasm, of course.

“I know my current work won’t meet the expectations of people who prefer see my social and political satire,” Sutee says. “But art has different dimensions, and this series is one of my most enjoyable.”

At any rate, the man has paid his dues. During the street rallies in Bangkok in late 2013, Sutee was part of the Art Lane collective assailing the government of Yingluck Shinawatra. He sold posters and T-shirts bearing phrases like “Reform Now” and “Redeem Thailand”.

Just this year he’s come under intense fire about his role in the ongoing group exhibition in South Korea “The Truth – To Turn It Over”, which commemorates the 1980 Gwangju Uprising against the military dictatorship there. 

Lim Jong-young, curator at the Gwangju Museum of Art, had asked Sutee to contribute three works and recreate his protest posters and shirts.

Learning of Sutee’s participation when the exhibition opened in May, more than 100 Thai artists and academics calling themselves Cultural Activists for Democracy (CAD) issued an open letter to the museum objecting to his piece “Thai Uprising” and his “political standpoint”. 

“It is clear that Sutee aligns with the People’s Democratic Reform Committee that has contributed to the political crisis and the May 22, 2014, coup,” the letter stated. “The PDRC is a movement [that sought] to uproot the Yingluck Shinawatra government by closing down the streets of Bangkok and government offices and blocking people from voting in the 2014 general election.” 

The CAD called Sutee’s involvement “not only insulting to Thailand’s democratic movement … but also the spirit of the Gwangju Uprising”.

In response, Sutee issued on an open letter of his own. “I appear to be accused of supporting the current military regime and, worse, of [advocating] a military coup,” he wrote. “I flatly deny both charges … My political activity was not in favour of the military but in opposition to the abuse of [Yingluck’s] parliamentary majority.”

Curator Lim – who has invited a CAD representative to give a talk at the museum next week to give visitors the alternative point of view – told the Nikkei Asian Review he was caught unaware by the protest from Thailand. He said his focus was solely on “the medium” rather than the politics. 

“These kinds of things – the T-shirts and posters – have never been displayed in our museum, so I wanted to try to show this.”

Sutee admits the controversy has had an impact on his work.

“I protested against a corrupt government and I’ve never supported the military coup,” he affirms. “However, this dispute has made me more careful in creating new work.”

 

WE’RE ALL ANIMALS

The exhibition “Animal Club” continues through next Saturday at the Number 1 Gallery on Silom Soi 21 in Bangkok.

The gallery is open Monday to Saturday from 11am to 7pm. 

Call (02) 630 2523 or visit www.Number1Gallery.com.