Born 1986, Bangkok, Thailand

Surajate Tongchua studied printmaking at Chiangmai University, graduating in 2010. His work has been exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions in Thailand and also in Singapore. His four works in Other Possible Worlds are part of a larger project that began in 2014 with Thailand’s latest coup d’état – they represent an expanded field of printmaking that includes the use of found materials. Priceless refers on one level to the simple economics of the cost of living, but as the artist says, it also refers to the ‘lives, opportunities, rights and freedoms’ that have been impacted by the rule of the military junta.

Tongchua was lined up at the bank on the day of the coup, and he began to think about how his VAT payments were used to support the government. He started to collect receipts showing his own and his family’s daily expenses, and then put the collection amassed over several years through a paper shredder, using the strips to create abstract ‘paintings’. Deconstructed and destroyed, the receipts are meaningless, calling into question the value of the items originally purchased, and a taxation system calculated to give more to the rich than to the poor. Audiences might view these works through a purely aesthetic prism, as abstract compositions, or they might think about the invisible mechanisms at work that assign value to some things – and some people – and not to others.

In addition to the 2D works, Tongchua created 3D pots, vessels and vases made of papier-mâché using Chinese language newspapers, primary school social science textbooks and receipts. The artist explains his choices: ‘Chinese newspapers refer to Chinese-Thai investors who have connections with the government. The social science textbooks have never changed content and aim to promote the cult of personality.’ Tongchua’s greyish papier-mâché tree growing out of its papier-mâché pot seems like the opposite of growth and abundance.