Everyday life can be quite interesting if you stop to take a look from time to time. Little things like a fish-sauce label or an old calendar can be so common that you might not even notice them anymore. But there is beauty in many of these things. Someone took the time to design them, and although even their creators may not consider them to be ‘art,’ maybe they should. This is one of the aims of Thai digital artist Artsaveworld. To appreciate life as is it, right here, right now.
Artsaveworld, whose real name is Watoosiri Junsin, mixes an earnest joy of daily life with influences from traditional Thai culture and personal references with an anti-art aesthetic and wild imagination. In one piece, a win motosai covered in sak yant tattoos tries to appease a policeman with a bloody bag of money in front of an abandoned traffic monitoring station. In another, busy life passes by in front of a mix of bars and temples along the shores of the swiftly-flowing Chao Phraya. In one, businessmen play board games with topless women in a vibrant sho huay spot hidden deep within a small alleyway.
The characters are drawn in Thai mural style and are often dressed in traditional clothes but done with rough, quick linework and bold, clashing colors. Artsaveworld guesses that the messy, maximalist style of her work comes from a love of metal music and the mosh pit; that it’s a sort of visual translation of the music and energy into illustration form. Her love of traditional Thai work and literary characters is centered around an appreciation of their ornate clothing and distinct accessories.
Artsaveworld’s work is often directly inspired by things she sees while walking around. One piece is based on a discrete photo she captured of an elderly women laying around casually in her liberally decorated sho huay, others are based on the ivy crawling along the ceiling of a cafe she visited and the river homes on stilts that she passed on her way somewhere else. The dalmatian dog is a fantastic version of her real-life bangkaew dog Lucky and her dad is actually a police officer.
The heavens and holidays are fair game as well, though. A buddhavista meditates in a wat high in the clouds. There’s a surreal celebration dotted with water balloons, a bong, and an electric toy phin instrument painted in swirling colors, sparkling lights, and overall trippy vibes. Mae Yanang sits protectively on top of a vintage Mercedes as universal yantras spill out in ornate details all around her. There’s nothing like Thai art anywhere else in the world and she hopes that her infusion of traditional art into new styles and progressive ideals will inspire others to see it in a new light and maintain its relevance along with the underappreciated parts of life here. It’s idealistic, egalitarian, and just plain fun.
