Surajate Tongchua's Mountain Drawings Critique Thai Politics in Dual Exhibitions

Surajate Tongchua presents two concurrent exhibitions exploring mountains as political metaphor. At Panic Room in Chiang Mai, 'Rashomon on Lying Mountain' features approximately 70 mixed-media drawings from 2022–25, rendered in black ink, pencil, and grey paint on handmade mulberry and bamboo paper. These works depict floating mountains in barren skies, referencing traditional Chinese ink painting while critiquing authoritarian systems. Wall text explicitly links the imagery to Thailand's air pollution crisis in Chiang Mai, irresponsible policies, and elite exploitation of natural resources. Phrases like 'power can corrode every day' appear within drawings. A parallel exhibition at Neu Contemporary in Bangkok, 'There are only Color and Mountain', showcases semiabstract acrylic paintings in single-color themes. Tongchua's repetitive mountain studies create unstable, volatile landscapes that question the Thai nation-state. The artist draws connections to Akira Kurosawa's film 'Rashomon', Thomas Paine's 'Common Sense', and Romanticism. The Panic Room exhibition includes 'Visiting Neighbor in the Summer' (2023), where sheer curtains with digitally manipulated drawings cast a grey pall over windows, directly referencing smog. The exhibition runs through 27 July 2025. This coverage appears in the Summer 2025 issue of ArtReview Asia.