An interview with Chris Coles

Chris Coles is an American artist living in Bangkok. His work challenges the establishment in a kingdom obsessed with beauty, whiteness, and face. Chris paints the side of Bangkok that the politicians try to hide, or at least ignore. Chris Coles and his art will be appearing at the Foreign Correspondents Club, Bangkok on the 19th October. He kindly spared me some time to speak about his work.

JN: Chris, I admired your observations on the inter-war German expressionism art scene and feel Bangkok is lucky to have you here. Where did your interest in art begin? Which artist, if any, got the ball rolling?

CC: I've been interested in art probably since I lived in Vienna for about 6 months in the mid-1970's. Vienna has many wonderful museums and I remember wandering around looking at the huge Hiëronymus Bosch paintings, and the many paintings of other Vienna artists, Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Hundertwasser, and also a bunch of other Expressionist paintings by the German artists.....Vienna has a lively gallery scene too....altogether the entire central area of Vienna is kind of like a museum for Central Europe early 1900's.........

My favorite Expressionist artist is Emil Nolde and I studied his use of distortion and color very carefully....he painted many scenes of Berlin Nightlife early 1900's....later Hitler and Co took all of his work out of the museums and actually banned him from painting completely....friends used to smuggle small amounts of art materials to him and he would hide in a closet and paint little 5x7 inch watercolors for some years, later making some of them into large oil paintings.......but the little watercolors are fabulous, very dense and powerful...........I made "original" copies of many of them as a way to absorb his technique per following link:

http://chriscolesgallery.com/decadent_berlin_paintings.htm

I paint almost every day, sometimes large acrylics, sometimes smaller watercolors....almost all of my paintings start as small watercolors (as per Nolde who wrote that by starting with small watercolors, he never had a "block" as it was something that could easily be thrown away if it didn't work, whereas if he started a large oil painting, he would always be hesitant as the overall design and use of color, fearing to make a "mistake')..........I used to do quite a few pencil sketches and portraits of all the interesting faces that are wandering around Bangkok....not in an Expressionist style but more or less realistic style......some of them are quite good, but not as interesting as the Expressionist paintings which have a style and point of view.........

At the end of my working day, say around 10 or 11 PM, I go wandering around the Bangkok Night's various districts, gradually absorbing ideas and material......


JN: Vienna is my favourite city in the west. Not sure quite why, something to do with the layout of the city maybe. Interesting that you mention Nolde's technique of working from a small work and then using that to create a larger work. I know this is a technique you use yourself. When you venture out to do research, do you look for your subjects or do your subjects find you? This is a serious question. The characters in your works are almost always essentially flawed as human beings, or say, dogs. All art needs conflict. Bangkok is full of conflict. Is this conflict the essence of Bangkok noir?

CC: When I'm wandering around, some places I actually like or enjoy or see as well-staged, other places are a mess, badly designed, badly laid out, badly managed, badly staffed....but might be interesting or give me an interesting idea for a painting or mood or situation or character..........I might hang out in some place despite not actually liking it, might end up talking with people who I would never otherwise talk to, such as around Soi 3 and Soi Bin Laden/Grace Hotel......I'm kind of like a combination seagull-vacuum cleaner-anthropologist-spy, just collecting random bits of information, visual and otherwise, which then stews around in my mind in unforeseen ways and pops out ideas from time to time, either consciously or just in the process of painting stuff

JN: Mr Coles, you have worked in the movie business. Do you think there has ever been a great movie shot in Thailand?

CC: I can't recall any "Hollywood" film shot in Thailand that captures the excitement, depth and complexity of modern Bangkok or modern Thailand.....there have been a few films that have filmed their locations in Thailand for stories set not in Thailand but elsewhere, such as Vietnam War era films like THE KILLING FIELDS, HEAVEN AND EARTH, CASUALTIES OF WAR, etc.

In regard to Thai films, despite being hindered by draconian censorship rules such as no stories about corrupt police or officials (like L.A. CONFIDENTIAL or TRAINING DAY), no stories with too much sex (like DANGEROUS LIAISONS), no "wrong kind of stories" about politcs or Buddhism, there have been some interesting Thai films such as the 1st BANGKOK DANGEROUS, BEAUTIFUL BOXER, and others more recently.........(I'm not an expert on Thai films however so my knowledge is limited)


JN: I think Bangkok has such great potential as a backdrop to a crime movie. Christopher G. Moore's first detective novel seems to have optioned a couple of times. I think it is a matter of time.

CC: My first job in the movie industry was as New York Location Manager for Superman I with Chris Reeve and as someone with a lot of experience finding and shaping locations for movies, (LA STORY being a good example with its "Santa Monica/Nouvelle LA" look), I would say modern Bangkok is a fabulous location for films set in the modern present-day...........

The problem is the Thai film industry is severely hampered by state censorship by unimaginative bureaucrats (regardless of who is PM and which party is in power) and "Hollywood" only thinks of BKK in very cliched terms instead of as the huge multi-layered, diverse, complex very modern metropolis it has become.....

It should also be noted that the Thai state censorship applies to foreign films coming into Thailand regardless of whether or not they are intended for distribution in Thailand......so it severely limits the script/story potential of even a big Hollywood film coming into BKK............the script has to be submitted, it is censored then approved, then a state government official from the film board is on the film set to ensure the script submitted and approved is the same as the one that is being filmed.....the basic rules: no portrayal of police, army or government corruption, no unapproved mention or portrayal of the "power-relationships" that govern Thailand, no criticism or "negative" portrayal of Buddhism, limited sex/love scenes, etc.

JN: Thanks Chris for the interview. I love your work and look forward to the show at the FCC Bangkok on the 19th October 2012.

Bangkok Transport Survival Guide.

Meter-taxis.

Does he know where he’s going? Does he even care? Sure he does. He's your friendly farang loving taxi driver. Just jump in and point to the meter. Sit back. Relax. Enjoy the Bangkok scenery crawl past for an hour or so before your driver admits he hasn’t the foggiest idea where you are. Last week he was planting rice in Surin. Now he's in Bangkok City. Pay the fare (with a generous tip ) and step out onto a strange street lined with stalls selling fried insects. There's a funky smell in the air. Don’t be alarmed. Just hold out your hand to the oncoming traffic. There are hundreds more clueless taxis itching to whisk you away and spit you out at your unintended destination. Repeat until intelligent driver found.

Tuk-tuk.

Tuk-tuk mister? Speak English? Only 20 baht? Where you want to go? Sexy lady? Now Happy Hour? Look only? Yeah. You have to love these guys. Great for tailor-shops, government gem stores or anywhere else the driver has a nasty little scam brewing. Don’t believe the temples are closed. They aren’t closed. Temples never close. Use Tuk-tuks only once. Take photograph. Post photo on facebook. And never use one of these two-stroke scamming pollution buckets again.

Skytrain.

Now we’re talking. Great for those that haven’t yet figured out the bus routes or enjoy travelling like cattle on the way to market. The views are great and the only way to travel lower Sukhumvit to Siam if you don’t have a more than a week to make the journey. Avoid use during sociable hours.

MRT.

Frighteningly modern. The rotfia shuttles beneath sin city with the precision of a polished lug through the barrel of a high-class bean-shooter. Climb down into the subterranean utopia. The London Tube this is not. Clean, precise, fast. Only the Germans could achieve such a thing.

Airport Link.

So modern. So clean. So smooth. How did they do it? Siemens again. So German. Over ten minutes wait between trains excludes this as a commuter option. But for getting into the city from the airport (what it was intended for) this is a thing of beauty. Just make sure your hotel is next to the airport link stop. I hear the Nasa Vegas is nice. Otherwise refer to the rest of this list and the best of British to ya.

Bangkok Buses.

Wow. What a network? Bangkok bus system reaches every nook and cranny in the city. The fast-track-training scheme for drivers gives Somchai from Ubon another chance in life. Last week he was driving an old beat up Honda wave and drinking white whiskey on the farm. He was thinking about suicide daily. Now he has a fast speed passenger vehicle and enough ya ba to propel him to work double shifts. Accidents? Pah. He fed a mangy soi dog some sticky rice this morning so there’s no way this love boat's gonna crash, baby.

Motorbike taxis.

An unemployable toe-rag buys a vest from the mob. Cost? anywhere from 1k to 500k. He joins the motorcycle taxi gang for life. You need to find out a bus route? Want to pay a bill? Deliver a package? Ask a motorbike taxi. You want to find out where the cheap accommodation is? Ask the dude in the orange vest. Motorbike taxis know everything. Everything apart from how to drive a motorcycle. Use only in emergencies and keep in mind if you do crash and need immediate medical attention you are in luck. A motorbike taxi is the only means of transportation that will get you to the emergency room with any chance of being alive on arrival, as long as you don't crash again, on the way.


Foot.

You. Are. Never. Safe. On. Foot. You see those black and white lines painted across the road? Now, they may look like zebra crossings. In fact they are designated suicide zones. Cross by all means, but don’t expect to live. See those red lanes painted on the sidewalk with pictures of bicycles painted on them? Those are motorbike lanes. In fact all sidewalks, pavements, and footpaths are motorbike lanes. Bangkok is the only city in the world where you can skilfully cross four lanes of traffic and make it to the pavement the other side of the road only to be mowed down by a Honda Wave 125cc.

River taxi.

Wet.

Conculsion.

Enjoy travelling in Bangkok. And when that bus races through lanes of traffic, narrowly avoiding collision at every jerk of the wheel spare a little thought. When that Tuk-tuk pulls a wheely in rush-hour traffic. When the guy in the orange vest doesn't have a spare helmet. Remember In Thailand death is not the end. It is simply the transition to a better life.

Christopher G. Moore. A Killing Smile.

Very much a book of its time A Killing Smile is both a work of fiction and a guidebook for those heading to the neon underworld of Bangkok's bar scene. Before the internet one had to turn to a novels like A Killing Smile to find out the juicy details about 'the scene'. The stuff that didn't make it into the guidebooks made it into works of fiction. The kind of information that may save a tourist from a broken heart, an empty bank account, or worse. Christopher G. Moore is the pioneer of Bangkok noir fiction. He has written about life and all her bruises in Bangkok for decades. A killing Smile is the book that got the ball rolling. Isaan b-girls, cutters, pissers, the scammers, the actresses. And their customers; lost alcoholics, grifters, chancers. Moore's writings are brilliant observations on the Bangkok nightlife and this one book is the benchmark that all other books on the Bangkok bar scene (including Christopher G. Moore's) have had to follow. It set the standard of an artistic movement: Bangkok Noir. US lawyer Lawrence Barings’ wife Sarah dies in an auto accident. Lawrence travels to Bangkok to find his old college pal Tuttle stagnating in the Bangkok bars. There are no great plot twists. Little action. But the novel makes up for this with its richness in characters, description, dialogue and most of all setting. The cast is fantastic. Crosby the English trust fund kid who grew up on hookers and darkness. Snow who wants to go up north with a box of New York magic tricks to become a Lahu Godman. The tussle between Lawrence's western lifestyle and Tuttle's expat existence frames the major conflict and theme of the book. The novel deals with cultural shifts, personal adjustments, death and acceptance. The novel is mainly written in third person, yet switches to second person to add descriptive depth. It also employs journal articles and letters. In many ways the novel was and is a creative triumph. It is a book I will read from time to time noticing something new each visit.