Gomma Photography Grant 2016
Whitewash
Photographer
Harit Srikhao
Whitewash
14 Oct, 2022
Inspired by bizarre and discordant memories of the 2010 violent riot in Thailand, Whitewash explores the mental surgery of citizens through propaganda in a post-truth society.Harit Srikhao employs an original visual vocabulary borrowed from both fetish fantasies, Hindu religious tropes and classic Thai imagery to question the notion of shared reality and the use of images as tools for social domination.“Heaven and hell are being used as political weapon to debase the value of the people and convince them to agree with the power. This way of thinking is aggressively taught in schools and it leads to a mindset which allows governments to cage the people of a nation. Propaganda provides the way we see ourselves, the way we see others and the way we see the world.If the government can domineer the thoughts of the people in the country, it can also control the way citizens will react to whoever thinks differently thus effectively controlling their behaviour in daily life.â€
About the photographer
Harit Srikhao
Harit Srikhao(b.1995 Bangkok; lives and works in Bangkok) Srikhao started taking photos when he was 13 years old with his keen eyes, until at the age of 16 he was selected to attend the Angkor Photo Workshop of French photographer, Antoine d’Agata (Magnum Photos). After coming back to Thailand, he started his first series, Red Dream (2012), by returning to the route that he got lost in the night of the military crackdown in 2010. Srikhao continually creates works in photo essay style, and his works were exhibited in both Thailand and foreign countries, e.g., ‘Cross_Stitch’ exhibition at Bangkok Art and Culture Center, ‘Margin of Visual Threshold’ exhibition at Circle Art Centre (China), GETXOPHOTO Exhibition (Spain) and New Perspectives on Photography Exhibition by Musée de l’Elysée (Switzerland, England and Mexico).Currently, Srikhao is in the progress of creating new work which is about the holy rites of imaginary beings for his dissertation in King Mongkut’s Instutute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL).
