The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Animal intercourse (reflection on May tragedy 1992) 1992 Gouache on canvas 185x488cm Collection: Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok Prasong Luemuang was born in 1962 in the village of Pantakern in Lamphun, Thailand. Largely self-taught he practises fu II-time as a painter. Since 1988, Prasong Luemuang has held solo exhibitions annually in Bangkok, beginning with a show at the Bhirasri Institute of Modern Art and most recently with his comprehensive 'Variations on aTheme', 1992, at the National Galle'ry, Bangkok. The artist has participated in numerous group exhi– bitions in Thailand and was represented in the 1988 'International Contemporary Painting Exhibition', The National Museum of Con– temporary Art, Seoul, South Korea. Among the awards he has received is a gold medal at the '34th National Exhibition of Art', Bangkok, 1988. Prasong Luemuang's work is held in university art collections and banking corporations in Thailand and by the National Gallery, Bangkok. Prasong Luemuang, the eldest of three children, was raised in an impoverished family in Lamphun, northern Thailand. With the premature death of his parents, his childhood was full of work and no play as he had to raise his siblings. In the early 1980s he enrolled at Silpakorn University in Bangkok but left before he could graduate because he felt that 'I went there only to learn artistic techniques. After I thought I had learnt enough, I left'. Prasong Luemuang's oeuvre is inspired by daily life activities in his native village. Described as a sophisticated fa rmyard fantasist, he has created an abundance of images related to fertility, mother nature and spirituality. Subjects related to Lan Na culture become enmeshed with glimpses of agricultural scenes in works by Joan Mir6 and Marc Chagall. The artist manages to dissolve THAILAND PRASONG LUEMUANG the barrier between calligraphy, illustration and graffiti as well as the preconceived notion that 'high art' and artistic influences should stem from the West. At first appearance many df Prasong Luemuang's paintings are like records of joie de vivre and fantasy. Images of farmers, fishermen, lunatics and flashers wriggle and writhe in frenzy among crowing cocks, barking dogs and mooing water buffaloes. Lurking among the rhythmic lines and garish colours are glimpses of menacing threat accompanied by morbid and macabre mood. In village life where animism and the super– natural are still highly revered, lust, desire and death are treated as a sensuous experience. Images of exoticism and eroticism confirm his dream and fantasy where human beings are still very much attached and controlled within the realm of animals and nature. During the crescendo of political activities which led to the bloody military crackdown in May 1992 in Bangkok, Prasong Luemuang began working on themes related to the catastrophe. Inspired by the subject of the Temptation of Mara in temple murals during the early Bangkok period, such as at Wat Suwanaram, in Animal intercourse he depicts an orgy of unbridled indulgence in greed and promiscuous sexual activity. At the centre of the work, instead of the symbol of goodness, there is a tattooed giant surging in space. For the artist this disgusting nude is equivalent to a culmination of evils symbol– ising insatiable greed, powermonger and uncontrolled lust. The giant's penis with a prickly red top is being licked by a dog and two men; the hairy testicles have a knife sticking out for protection from castration. For Prasong Luemuang, this image wearing an 50 army boot and weapons in hand is not to be of Generals Suchinda Kraprayoon, lssarapong Noonpakdee and Kaset Rojananin whom most Thais love to hate, but a symbol of avarice, megalomania, turmoil and carnage. The artist wrote this poem for the painting : Dignity, Power, Fortune, this sword slaughters lover Too much pleasure among mankind Stop!!! Dampen thy vehement desires Rise from the abyss to the apex, shall this be heeded. Apinan Poshyananda