1Free of Religion & Religious Heritage


Prajñâ Vihâra, Volume 7, Number 1, January-June, 2006, 177-180 177
© 2000 by Assumption University Press

CULTURAL SNAPSHOTS

A Portrait of A Child - Social Victims

Vara Chaiyanitaya was born in 1967 in Suphanburi, Thailand

and is now a teacher at the College of Fine Arts in Lad Krabang, Bangkok.

He graduated a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Prints) in 1992 and later a Master

of Fine Arts (Prints) in 2002 both from Silpakorn University. He has had

many group and solo exhibitions in Thailand and abroad. His prints have

won more than a dozen of awards from Asian and European countries.



In Thai Society's attempt to adapt itself to the modern world,

many social problems are emerging which are highly visible in the news

media. We are continuously confronted with images of violent crimes.

Among these crimes, child labour, sexual abuse to children, violence against

children and child trafficking are very common.

One concern is how victims are portrayed. The news media sen-

sationalizes the news for the sake of business competition. The more sen-

sational the portrayal, the more interesting and deeper the treatment of the

issue seems to be. However, the effect of this is that the innocent victims

are being abused just as much by the media as the actual crimes them-

selves.

178  Prajñâ Vihâra



In the series of "Social Victims", the artist wishes to portray the

pain and violence against children caused by contemporary society. He

executes his artworks in a manner which reflects the presentation of the

news media. The portraits of children in his prints are similar in pose (the

half-length portrait) to that of photographs of victims generally taken by

government offices, newspapers and the like.

Nonetheless, the artworks also allows a transcendence from the

dark sensationalism to another level which allows the viewers to under-

stand the problems without penetrating into the privacy of the innocent

victims. The artist wishes to foster love, understanding and peace in soci-

ety through the powerful black-and-white compositions and the multilay-

ered tones of his artworks.

Cultural Snpshots  179



For nearly two decades, the artist has focused his attention on the

theme of innocent victims in societies most confronted by the harsh reali-

ties of life and world. His art specializes in the techniques of etching and

aquatint which allows him to play with detail, strong contrasts of light and

shadow, and complex layers of Thai script and linear patterns juxtaposed

over the human portrait. His signature is the way he accentuates the fixed,

penetrating eyes of the subjects which is in contrast to the other more

realistic details of the human figure. This is to emphasize the fact that the

eyes of children who have been the victims of violence, changes forever.

An array of paranoia, aggressiveness and fear now begin to find their

expression. In some works, their mouth is also overwritten with words

which obscure their own voice and accentuate the fact that the victimized

children are too innocent to call for justice.

180  Prajñâ Vihâra



Cultural Snpshots  181

Text by Preevanuch Nhukate

Graduate School of Philosophy and Religion,

Assumption University of Thailand