Fish King Arnon has been cut down by massive, thoughtless cities and monotonous single-family homes. The mythologic Buddhist creature believed to swim in circles beneath the earth to keep it rotating is stripped of flesh and sinew, left to rot in endless expanses of concrete. This is the vision of Thai artist Guide, who takes ancient Thai culture and propels into into the future—or rather the grim present. His digital art is painted in muted shades and earthy tones, resembling the colors made from natural pigments for murals, and depicted in parallel projection or isometric style calling back to the traditional paintings that have taught similar stories for centuries.
Guide—who’s analog alias is Korrawit Kanjanakuha—depicts stately wats among spiraling clouds and flames in dense, map-like cities fenced in by impenetrable highways or choking under solid, grainy smog. He spins tales of ecological awareness and urban design malfeasance in a language that could be interpreted simultaneously as a temple mural or an 8-bit video game. He envisions highland tribes in cyberpunk environments, self-replicating digital deities, and toxic TV dinners.
Guide grew up surrounded by traditional Thai art on the ceramics that his family business produced, but it didn’t capture his attention until studying art at university. Before he became an artist, he worked as an urban designer, which is where the architectural leanings in his art come from. In his spare time he began studying Thai art at university, which opened his eyes to the wealth of creativity surrounding him. “It’s unfortunate it took me so long to appreciate it,” he says. “But now, one of my goals is to preserve the know-how and pass it on.” He’s now a full-time artist and all of his digital work is inspired by local culture fused with cutting-edge technologies. He also does ceramic art.
It’s all bleak but beautiful. Ugly track homes crowding around the fish guts of Arnon and a methane-spewing, mobile cattle factory that tramples anything in its path raise very real and distressing issues of our current world systems. But it’s reaffirming to see someone speaking out about them; to know that they’re not happening in a vacuum. It’s also refreshing to see them communicated in an original and thoughtful style, one that doesn’t simply preserve tradition but furthers it. Holding the gaze of destruction is much easier when it’s filtered through such a graceful lens.
