Born 1987, Korat, Thailand

How can an artist respond in meaningful ways to systemic abuses of power in this era of ‘fake news’? Tada Hengsapkul is interested in how power and control operate in Thai society – and globally – and in holding the powerful to account. A photographer and conceptual artist, he is increasingly drawn to creating immersive installations in which viewers become physically and emotionally involved in issues of human rights and censorship. The Shards Would Shatter at Touch (2017) invites viewers to participate in revealing dark secrets. You are instructed to choose one of 49 pieces of cloth painted with black thermochromic paint and hold it to your chest, like an embrace. The heat of your body will cause an image of a person to appear. Each portrait revealed through this simple action of human warmth is a political prisoner, or a victim of state violence. Unsurprisingly, the work was shut down by military police when first shown in Bangkok.

Much of Hengsapkul’s work has examined the impact of the American military presence in Thailand since the Second Indochina War (called the Vietnam War in Australia, and the American War in Vietnam). This tangled postcolonial history of geopolitical power struggles continues to play out into the present day. Hengsapkul also focuses his unflinchingly critical attention on censorship, repression and human rights abuses, exposing uncomfortable truths that Thai authorities would prefer remained hidden.

They Said They Didn’t Use Live Rounds (2014), a set of four photographs of bullet holes in concrete walls and metal pipes, documents a lie. After an anti-government protest in Bangkok in 2010 was violently broken up by police and armed security, their denial that live ammunition was used is easily disproved. Yet, as long as a lie is repeated often enough it will be accepted as truth, especially when those who know better are afraid to speak out.