Manit Sriwanichpoom, Pink, White & Blue #4 (The Future), 2005, digital C-print, 23 1⁄2 × 20". From the series “Pink, White & Blue,” 2005.
Manit Sriwanichpoom
Tyler Rollins Fine Art
Spanning twenty years of his ongoing “Pink Man” series, Manit Sriwanichpoom’s exhibition of photographic works “Shocking Pink Story” critiqued Thailand’s jingoism, consumerism, and heavy embrace of tourism through an assortment of archival images and propagandistic portraits. The Pink Man character, who appears throughout the work, is embodied by Sompong Thawee, a Thai poet. He sports a hot-pink, double-breasted satin suit and tie, sometimes with matching pink shoes. On occasion he scoots around with an empty shopping cart of the same florid hue. The Pink Man journeys to Indonesia and Europe—but the most captivating pieces are those shot in Thailand, his native country. According to Sriwanichpoom, the nation’s censorious government has not given him any trouble because he doesn’t employ texts in his art. Funnily enough, he is one of Thailand’s most celebrated photographers.
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