My Own Words: [Behind The Scenes]
The “Instagrammable” resistance in Thailand
By Chalermsilp Chalearmsanyakorn
'My Own Words' is a monthly series which features personal essays by practitioners in the Southeast Asian art community. They deliberate on their locality's present circumstances, articulating observations and challenges in their respective roles.
This essay is the second of a two-part special in our ‘My Own Words’ series. Click here to read Diana Zaw Win’s essay on political art in Myanmar.
Sina Wittayawiroj, ‘Your Silence is Political,’ 15 March 2021, digital paintings. Image courtesy of Sina Wittayawiroj®.
What is the exit strategy for civil disobedience in the COVID-19 situation? People in countries with good social welfare and strong epidemic control measures are unlikely to bring this subject for discussion. Thailand, in contrast, can be an adequate testing ground for answering the question. Since the mid-2020 emergence of the #whatshappeninginthailand trend, progressive Thai artists' protest art has begun to appear prominently in Instagram feeds. The cause is the post-coup military government issuing the Emergency Decree to halt the pandemic, forbidding demonstrations or activities involving people. However, Poonsuk Poonsukcharoen, a human rights lawyer, clearly declared that the Decree was not intended to control the pandemic but rather to discriminately limit freedom of expression. As a result, the state of emergency has compelled artists and the public to replace physical protests with virtual counterparts. This makes the masses not need to be concerned about airborne infections; instead, political art can be posted and shared from anywhere and at anytime. As long as they are not the secular leaders of demonstrators, the state will not prosecute those who are related.
Sina Wittayawiroj, ‘Neutral Between Balls,’ 9 March 2021, digital paintings. Image courtesy of Sina Wittayawiroj®.
Sina Wittayawiroj, a graphic designer and visual artist, is regarded as one of the forerunners of drawing for numerous networks that emerged as political movements. He has also organised a group of democratic artists, claiming that he did not have enough money to send to pro-democracy organisations; thus, this is the only way available to them as a ‘ท่อน้ำเลี้ยง’ or pipeline. Wittayawiroj's two most liked illustrations in his internet portfolio are ‘Your Silence is Political’ and ‘Neutral Between Balls’. These aim to awaken apathetic political communities or far-right-wing supporters to realise that they are utilising social privilege to oppress others. When relating his vision to protesters' essential thinking, he believes that being an ignorant person equals being those who surrendered to the oppressions of today's authoritarian government and tacitly ignored the hope for a better life in a democratic world.
Puntita Meeboonsabai, ‘Reject Humanity Return to Monkey’, 2021, oil painting. Image courtesy of Puntitabow.
Similarly, in Puntita Bunsabai (Puntitabow)'s oil painting on May 19, we witness protest art against Thai elites in a vigorously incisive, cunning, and humorous style. She chose to characterise the “royal one” with a peeling statue of David, an Israeli king in the Hebrew Bible. Also, Bunsabai indicated David as a monkey, an animal lacking a higher cognitive process because “he” has abandoned the ten royal virtues possessed in his pedigree.
Pssyppl., Révolution, 15 October 2020, digital painting. Image courtesy of Pssyppl..
Nevertheless, Pssyppl. is one of the artists who use art from a different perspective. In this respect, he has chosen to channel his rage and revenge into brightly coloured political art, enticing the powerful with visual arts weaponry. Nuchalearn, in his work "Révolution," deliberately mimicked the artistic elements of the French Revolution incident to build a link between the past and the present. He was adamant that doing so would provide new generations with a better understanding of a revolutionary perspective leading towards a real democracy.
While millennials and Generation Z have clicked like buttons and shared the artist's pictures on their feeds, fascinating questions set against today's resistance art movements have multitudinously sprung into the critical thought process. For example, suppose these artists can criticise brutal and inhumane crimes in society or even successfully urge people to unite as a whole; why are we still witnessing these pieces of art being produced regularly? Or are such protest arts unable to properly uplift humanity in people's hearts and minds as intended? But, if that's the case, why do people continue to visit these artists' online galleries? Sippakorn Keawsantea who is often known as Baphoboy, is a satirical painter interweaving his work with grins, personally gave an interview with The Momentum, a Thai online news agency: “Frequently, audiences did not comprehend the artworks' real objective but still shared them on IG stories, thinking they were just hilarious and satirical.” Keawsantea’s taunting excerpt has shown us that the goal of public praise and sharing of protest arts on Instagram has become increasingly vague, as it is impossible to discern whether or not these sharers support pro-democracy movements. Some may share such artworks as they genuinely believe in the notion of expression, while some posted it to blend in with their surrounding peers, expressing that they were neither politically apathetic nor pro-conservatives. No matter what the reason is, according to Instagram's posts sharing period system, this political expression could scarcely raise mass excitement because its life expectancy on posts sharer's display is a maximum of only 24 hours.
“Can we regard the sharing of these artworks merely as a survival strategy in the millennial and Gen Z society as a social animal? It is still a pity that we can only fill in the answers to these questions with speculative and subjective points of view. But as citizens who expect a better world, the REAL democratic world, resistance art’s sharings must go on regardless of who and how the artwork is interpreted.”
In the end, is it true then that this resistance art is in line with digital protests to reach wider mass groups and be more permanent compared with street protests? Can we consider post sharing a trend in Instagram aesthetic conventions—the Instagrammable resistance— only? Can we regard the sharing of these artworks merely as a survival strategy in the millennial and Gen Z society as a social animal? It is still a pity that we can only fill in the answers to these questions with speculative and subjective points of view. But as citizens who expect a better world, the real democratic world, resistance art's sharings must go on regardless of who and how the artwork is interpreted. At least we are on the right track!
The post sharing would create a subnetwork of pro-democratic artists' ideological dissemination even if the post only lasts on user's feeds for a day. Let us do the math: is it possible for everyone to share such art pieces at the same time? No. At least, we are on the right track! The post sharing would create a subnetwork of pro-democratic artists' ideological dissemination even if the post only lasts on user's feeds for a day. Let us do the math: is it possible for everyone to share such art pieces at the same time? No. And is it true that each person only shares them once in a lifetime? No. Consequently, keep protesting! Keep sharing it until that one day when these works of art will have the opportunity to act according to their capabilities and purposes.
Notes
Thai PBS World Tonight, Prolonged state of emergency troubles rights and freedom [YouTube], accessed May 19, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-5hcrGicUw&t=14s
Ratchanikorn Srifawattana & Nakwan Sriarunothai, “Sina Wittayawiroj: If the country is not frustrated, I wouldn't have drawn anything like this” (in Thai), WAY magazine, accessed May 19, 2021, from https://waymagazine.org/sina-wittayawiroj-interview/
Duanpen Juipracha, Pssyppl. “An Artist who draws anger in the country as a work of art that does not provoke anger, but provoke suspicion” (in Thai), a day, accessed May 19, 2021, from https://adaymagazine.com/pssyppl/
Thanasil Meepean, “Thank you for the courage to smile at each other: A talk with Baphoboy, painters who use smiles criticising authoritarianism” (in Thai), The Momentum, accessed May 18, 2021, from https://themomentum.co/baphoboy-interview/
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of A&M.
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About the Author
From being granted a scholarship by the Towards Excellence in Thai language and literature programme, Chalermsilp CHALEARMSANYAKORN is an amateur researcher with an online published work in spatial and ethnographic perspective in left-wing literary works. He has also been awarded second-class honours in Thai (major) and English (minor), from Chulalongkorn University. He is currently completing his dissertation, which primarily focuses on spatial politics and anti-authoritarianism art since the Cold War, to fulfil his Master’s degree in History, The University of Edinburgh (UK).
