Recipe for democracy

Recipe for democracy

Sinsawat Yodbangtoey's current exhibition showcases the artist's politically motivated work

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Recipe for democracy

Pro-government poet Mai Nueng Kor Kunthee was shot on April 23. By April 24, artist Sinsawat Yodbangtoey had posted a political cartoon on his Facebook page, featuring his staple character Jao Klae, with the words “Blood stains can’t be cleaned with blood… Please note”. Jao Klae, a child with two ponytails, raises his palm, as if demanding, “Stop!”

An exhibition at the Pridi Banomyong Institute, entitled “From Line Drawings of Jao Klae and Friends to Photographs Baring Political Ideals”, traces the progression of Sinsawat’s work, from the birth of Jao Klae, to his recent photographic series Absolute Love. Comprised of over 200 works, the exhibition reads like a political diary, marked by specific events which inspired his drawings, from the Oct 14, 1973 student uprising and the 80th anniversary of the Siamese Revolution, through the 2010 crackdown to the current conflict. His lines are clean and minimalist, though the content can be heavy. In one of them, two children lay dead. “Democracy isn’t some frozen food you can buy from a 7-Eleven and consume immediately. It is not an instant process,” he said. His works preaches exactly that, teaching lessons from the failures and triumphs in the country’s struggle for democracy.

At a time when artists frequently take sides and make radical political statements, Sinsawat remains firmly rooted in the middle. His drawings befit his role as an educator at the Pridi Banomyong Institute, which aims to pass on the philosophy and accomplishments of the late statesman Pridi Banomyong. The works on show are not exactly striking, but very clearly serve a social purpose.

Artist Sinsawat Yodbangtoey.

Looking at Jao Klae, one inevitably hears Whitney Houston bellowing: “I believe the children are our future.” The conception of the character, long before Sinsawat started making political art after seeing a poster calling for the boycott of Japanese goods during the youth movements of the 70s, stems closely from this hopeful notion.

When Sinsawat was a boy, he would listen, enthralled, to his godmother tell the tales of Sanmao, one of China’s most famous manhua comic characters. It was the mid-20th century and his godmother had just migrated from China, fleeing the hardship and starvation of the time. She and her husband rented a room where Sinsawat’s family was living.

“We had a black-and-white television at the time and I watched all these Western cartoons. They were entertaining, but I was never as impressed,” he said.

Sanmao was the main character of the eponymous strip, written by Zhang Leping in the 1930s, around the time Mickey Mouse and Curious George were created. Unlike the magic-tinged adventures of those characters, Sanmao’s comic strips leaned
more closely toward the struggles and deprivations of Oliver Twist. The character’s name refers to the three strands of hair on the malnourished boy’s head, reminiscent of Charlie Brown’s little tuft.

One strip shows Sanmao freezing in the fluttering winds while a worker wraps tree trunks so they can survive the winter. In another, Sanmao sleeps on the streets of Shanghai, covering himself with newspaper. A person in a passing car throws a cigarette out the window, lighting the newspapers on fire.

“My godmother told me Sanmao stood as a representation of all the children in China, children who didn’t have much,” recalled Sinsawat. He has translated Sanmao’s innocence, strength and will to survive into his own character.

A humanist, his artworks convey his reflections on overcoming tribulations through compassion and humility. He also cites the Chinese films The Assassin (1967) and Have Sword Will Travel (1969) as having a great impact on him. “None of the Westerns films I saw ever addressed the notion of sacrifice for the good of humanity, without regard for oneself, like these two. My godmother took me to watch [another] Chinese film, I can’t remember the title now. But it was a story about a very poor family. The mother had to cut off a part of her bicep off to feed her children because they couldn’t afford food,” Sinsawat says.

These moral influences surface in the exhibition, whether it through political drawings, a series of female drawings or  photographs of him topless, baring his soul in response to how we as a population have reacted to the current political situation. Each of the photographs in the series, such as one depicting him holding joss sticks, comes with an aphorism, guiding viewers and provoking reflections, in the end serving the same purpose as his political drawings.

“Democracy is a scientific process, not magic. You can’t just pray for it,” he said.

Sinsawat Yodbangtoey’s exhibition is on show at Pridi Banomyong Institute in Thong Lor until May 14. 

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