I still remember the first time I saw Manit Sriwanichpoom’s photographs at the Esplanade, back in 2005. They really brought a smile to my face. Photographed in the middle of a beautiful rice field in Bali was a rotund man wearing a bright pink suit and pushing a pink trolley. How incongruous, but what did it mean? The Pink Man and his shopping trolley have travelled the world. Manit has photographed them in Bangkok, Venice and Paris and for the artist, they are symbolic of consumer excess. The Thai artist who confronts social and political issues with wry humour, started the series in 1997 after he visited a new shopping centre in Bangkok and was struck by its size and how Thais had embraced consumerism without a second thought. Manit has been using the same actor (one of his friends) to be photographed posing in various locations. Like most tourists, the Pink Man travels not to learn, but to consume, collecting exotic destinations, shopping and showing off. Manit is part of the Q8 show on contemporary art I recommended earlier, and he will be in town to talk about his work on April 6 at the Singapore Art Museum in the evening. It's free, but you must pre-register. That’s one I don’t want to miss.
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