Fridae

This week's ARTSingapore 2001 showcases big names from galleries such as Marlborough Fine Art from London, Schoeni Art Gallery from Hong Kong. As such, expect mixed responses for Thai artist Vasan Sittiket who is one of six artists brought down by Thavibu, a Bangkok gallery that specializes in fine South East Asian art.

There are strong influences of Franceso Clemente's and Keith Herring's work - who hung many of their paintings on gay erotic themes - in Vasan's work, though he would adamantly deny it. "He's jumped on the gay bandwagon for shock value," said one Vasan observer. It is just another shrewd move to sell more paintings said another cynical art critic.

In the past, Vasan's offended the clergy, the politicians and has even gone jingoistic to suit his own purposes, and the ARTSingapore 2001 will be no exception where he's exhibiting 10 provocative works that should have Singaporeans raising eyebrows.

"I don't believe Vasan's works will have any problems with the censorship board," said Ms Tay Swee Lin, the organiser of the ArtSingapore 2001, adding that Vasan has exhibited controversial works in Singapore in the past.

"He uses sex/eroticism as a tool to promote his political ideas and opinions," said the The Director of Thavibu, Jorn Middleburg.

Love you Thailand, for example, depicts a woman being raped by all the evils that Vasan could conjure up from his vibrant palette- a monk with a penis as a nose is in the mallee.

Not a new comer to shock value art, Vasan recently attended a gallery opening in Bangkok where he got up on stage and belched his Weltschmerz of the state of affairs from corrupt politicians to the exploitation of Thai women by western sex tourists with a dildo as a microphone.

"Every time I return to my village," wailed the 43-year-old political activist. "I realize that the lot of the farmers has not changed at all. Our politicians have done nothing."

For someone with such social convictions, it's amazing how penises, in many shapes and forms, has been the driving force for this Thai artist whose paintings over the years have been a phantasmagoria of phalluses.

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Beautiful Dick no. 10, for example, done with crayon on sa (handmade) paper is accompanied by Vasan scribbles. It's an accomplished piece executed with attention to composition but it's perplexing to see how it champions the plight of the poor that he's so vocal in rallying for.

While this erotic art may have shock value abroad; locally Thais who have strong animist beliefs accept it with a pinch of salt. The palad kid, or penis is fashioned from wood and carried around for good luck by many Thais and is openly displayed at amulet stalls. Or the annual Pi Ta Khon fertility festival in Essan where villagers fashion masks in the shape of colourful penises as a fecund expression for a bountiful rice harvest.

In I want to be a model (not shown), Vasan has reinvented himself - it's a mocking piece injected with estrogen. Vasan has grown breasts and has morphed into a parody of himself. But his political message is lost if there was any in the first place. This is Vasan at his best, with a coy Mona Lisa cock-teasing smile, the audience is his muse.

Like the late Jean-Michel Basquiate, Vasan's Sittiket's work teems with resistance, has notes of mayhem and plays on the demolition of social mores with heavy-handed expressionistic dabs across the canvas.

All the works on display here are shrill, urgent and most importantly quintessentially Vasan. He magnifies social ills without really offering a remedy. In many respects his work is one big hood wink, but the question is who is he trying to fool.

ARTSingapore 2001
Date: 29 Sep 2001 to 3 Oct 2001
Venue: Suntec City, SICEC Concourse Level 3
Price: $10, inclusive of fair catalogue.
$8 for senior citizens and students, inclusive of fair catalogue.