In Mit Jai Inn's "Beautiful Futures", one is encouraged to step on artworks, walk right through canvases or dip a finger into fresh paint. Indeed, reverence -- or irreverence -- is at the centre of the Chiang Mai-based artist's exhibition, as he reflects on power and status, both in art and in life.
Spanning over both floors at H Gallery in Bangkok, the sweeping canvases and visually enthralling paintings take multiple forms -- be they hanging screens and scrolls or a tabletop, much like the one on which the artist works at his Chiang Mai studio.
It usually takes Mit up to a year to complete his textured, often double-sided paintings, and the large works that make up Beautiful Futures are no exception.
The "Project Room" on the gallery's top floor is taken over by an installation made up of eight free-hanging canvases with dimensions exceeding 3m in height. References to Eastern-Asian traditional art forms such as painted screens and murals are to be found throughout the exhibition, acting as partition lines and commanding power.
The rich, ornate screens serve dual purposes of flaunting and concealing in their historical setting. Often associated with the higher institutions -- monarchy and religion -- the panels separate the sacred from the profane, the authority figures from the common people.
Here, they are set up in a labyrinthine form, leaving visitors apparently free to roam the room and observe each painting in the order they chose.
In reality, the maze conditions us to walk through confined spaces and, from up-close, Mit's painterly motifs of clumps and colour drops become a dizzying sight.
The installation's multiple layers also convey a theatrical view, a parody of traditional plays in which various settings succeed one another through the lifting and dropping motions of decorated panels. Life becomes an imitation of art and power is displayed through orchestrated ceremonies.
An agitator and iconoclast, Mit is renowned for his political engagement, from the days of the popular protests against the government of Gen Suchinda Kaprayoon after the coup of 1992 to Thailand's latest military takeover in 2014.
Since the May 2014 coup, the Chiang Mai artist has been involved in both the art scene and resistance movements through the creation of Cartel Artspace in Bangkok, a gallery on Narathiwat Road which oft featured controversial shows by young artists reflecting on the country's political situation.
Mit's latest show in Thailand dates back to 2015, when he introduced his installation Junta Monochrome at Gallery VER. Paint was left to drip and colours to mix, on a large canvas, as the artist challenged both notions of painting and authorship as well as the uniformity imposed on the country by the ruling junta.
Since then, Mit has gone on to create double-sided screens shown last autumn in New York, presenting dual views of Thailand and Thai society -- regimented and colourful on one side, organic and dark on the other. The title Beautiful Futures is of course ironic, as Mit created in the past year some of his darkest paintings yet. Colours with dramatic intensity replaced his usual pastel hues, while the splattered paint created tightly-knit motifs that fill the airy, fluorescent white spaces of his canvases.
"The exhibition's tone reflects a future that is difficult to foresee," the artist says. "In this time and place, conscience and reason have become distorted. Art is the only way I have found to express myself."
On the gallery's top floor balcony, a single scroll is placed on the left-hand side, perhaps the most powerful note of optimism in the show -- a piece of history rolled up and tossed to one side, soon to be replaced by coming chapters.
Mit also takes his scathing criticism of power and applies it to art. In his work, the Silpakorn dropout, who completed his education at the Vienna Academy of Art, has tested traditional painting forms and exploded conventions.
Mit's artworks do not only belong on walls, they are multifarious and multidimensional, sculpture-like objects that stand on their own.
The artist does not demand that one bow in admiration and deference in front of them.
"Beautiful Futures" is on show at H Gallery in Bangkok until March 3.
