“Preserve this fruit”, a whimsical, colourful Thai-influenced painting by Melbourne artist Rob McHaffie, has taken out the Geelong gallery’s acquisitive award for contemporary painting.
“The figure in this painting is inspired by the traditional Thai folk painting styles that adorn the walls of great temples like Wat Pho (the Temple of the Reclining Buddha) in Bangkok,” says McHaffie.
“The old man represents the accommodating and good-humoured nature I have found in Thailand.
“He is part of a small narrative I was imagining about (US silk trader) Jim Thompson first meeting with Thai locals.
“The conversation might go, “Hello Jim my name, I’m very interested in preserving your silk culture here.”
The old man may answer, “You can preserve this fruit if you like”.
Guest judge, Charlotte Day said “Preserve this fruit” reflected McHaffie’s distinctive approach to painting involving processes of modeling and collaging.
“Although modest in scale, his paintings are sharply perceptive reflections on the paradoxes of contemporary life,” she said.
“As well as nodding to traditional Thai folk painting, this work can be appreciated as an allegory of Western and colonial attitudes to the East.
“In addition to the skillful ‘collaging’ of shapes, patterns and references, what most impressed us about this painting is its slow reveal.
“While seducing the viewer with its lush crimson background and bright, intricate designs in the first instance, it does not give itself away to the casual glance. It’s more like a puzzle that requires some thoughtful working out.”
McHaffie’s interest in traditional art forms flourished during a 2011 Asialink residency at Rimbun Dahan, near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Following this he lived in Thailand, where he worked with cut paper to create collages: ‘sketches’ that form the basis for his paintings.
Just as the figure in this work is constructed from paper cut from the pages of a magazine, McHaffie constructs an imaginary narrative between this elderly gentleman—representative of traditional Thai life—and the silk entrepreneur Jim Thompson, who in the years after the Second World War, reinvigorated the Thai silk industry.
