Queensland Art Gallery - Queensland Government

Manit Sriwanichpoom
The agony of waiting
In 2006, the 60th anniversary of Thailand’s revered King Bhumibol
Adulyadej’s accession to the throne was marked by celebrations across
the country. Also known as Rama IX, Bhumibol is the world’s longest
serving head of state and Thailand’s longest reigning monarch. Yet,
this figure of remarkable consistency and respect sits above a deeply
divided and volatile nation: Bhumibol’s reign has seen 17 military
coups and 29 prime ministers. Although a constitutional monarch,
the king has played a crucial, if ambiguous, role in Thai politics,
notably supporting the 1992 transition from military rule to an elected
government. For a country experiencing endemic political corruption,
and facing widening gaps between the urban middle classes and the
rural poor, the king offers a model of detached integrity and a symbol
of social cohesion and moral authority.
On the surface, Manit Sriwanichpoom’s 2006 series of photographs
‘Waiting for the King’ is a straightforward record of crowds gathered
for the king’s birthday at the Royal Ground in Bangkok on 5 December.
The photographs are black and white, but it is clear that most of the
subjects are wearing the canary yellow shirts — the colour representing
Monday and the king’s day of birth — produced for the 60th jubilee,
which many Thais continue to wear today. 1 However, the people do not
look particularly jubilant, appearing alternatively bored, stern, tired,
wary or even slightly hostile. Many have waited for hours in Bangkok’s
humid heat, some sleeping overnight to gain a position for only a few
seconds’ glimpse of the king as his motorcade passes on its journey
from his residence to the ceremonial Grand Palace.
urban environment are featured in the book Bangkok in Black and
White (1999) 3 , and the series ‘Dream interruptus’ 2000 records the
abandoned and unfinished buildings left behind in the wake of
the financial crisis, like the ruins of a war zone. Protest 2002–03 was
produced from a year of weekly visits to the gates of Bangkok’s
Government House, where protestors from all over Thailand, from laidoff
city workers to displaced farmers, come to make their cases heard.
With poignant directness, these works convey the effects of rapid
economic transformation on individual lives, and the failure of public
institutions to assist and support them.
‘Waiting for the King’ continues this documentary approach in a less
overt but equally powerful manner. Sriwanichpoom brings to the
dynamic action and immediacy of street photography the deep focus
of portraiture, its pared-back style strengthened by his use of blackand-white
film. The frieze of 14 photographs in this series extends over
seven metres, yet we are drawn instantly to individuals. The stationary
nature of waiting, and the stillness of the work, makes it appear as if
these people are posing for the artist. We see the apprehensive, yet
direct, stares of a couple with their arms folded, her spotted hat, his
tattooed forearms; a young man in his camouflage pants, seemingly
faraway; and a mother and her young son, in his unwittingly graceful
pose. With elegant simplicity and clarity, Sriwanichpoom captures the
anxiety of a nation looking toward an uncertain future — its beloved
king cannot always be counted on to arrive.
In a culture where confrontation is traditionally frowned upon,
Sriwanichpoom has made political commentary and social activism
the driving force for his work. He is perhaps best known for staged
photographic tableaux exploring the effects of Thailand’s economic
booms and busts, fuelled by the forces of global capitalism and
Western influence. In This bloodless war 1997, he reworked famous
war photography to portray a society in meltdown during that year’s
Asian financial crisis, brought about by the devaluation of the inflated
Thai baht. His ongoing series featuring the Pink Man (performance
artist Sompong Thawee) considers the globalised world through the
eyes of a contemporary Thai consumer, embodied by Thawee with
his lurid pink suit, mobile phone and empty pink shopping cart. He
appears against postcard-perfect landscapes and religious sites —
internationally renowned images and lucrative resources of Thailand
— or inserted into media images of violent uprisings and crackdowns
that have occurred all too frequently in Thai history. ‘Fat and happy’,
the Pink Man epitomises what Sriwanichpoom views as an apathetic,
consumerist populace, continually failing to learn from its mistakes. 2
Alongside these acerbic constructions, Sriwanichpoom, who has
worked as a press and advertising photographer, also makes images
in a photojournalistic mode. His photographs of Bangkok’s changing
Russell Storer
Endnotes
1 Yellow shirts are still worn by many Thais on Mondays, and have also been taken up
by the People’s Alliance for Democracy, a movement constituted largely by royalist
members of Bangkok’s middle classes. This movement was behind the street
protests which led to the overthrow of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006,
and of the Thaksin-aligned Somchai Wongsawat government in 2008. Thaksin
supporters, mostly from rural Thailand, are known as ‘red shirts’.
2 Chawadee Nualkhair, ‘The politics of art and the art of politics’, Bangkok Post,
28 September 2008.
3 Manit Sriwanichpoom, Bangkok in Black and White, Chang Phuak Ngadam,
Bangkok, 1999.
Manit Sriwanichpoom
Thailand b.1961
‘Waiting for the King (standing)’ series 2006
Gelatin silver print, ed. 1/9 / 50 x 49.5cm / Purchased 2008
with funds derived from the Bequest of Grace Davies
and Nell Davies through the Queensland Art Gallery
Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
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