A black Buddha head resting on the side, a cross-blade scissors spread across the canvas with the blades on a neatly folded yellow cloth (yellow colour often associated with Royalty). What do you make of this Asian-themed still-life, with the title, Revolutionist, suggesting the obvious iconoclast. As the artist Natee Utarit proffered: “There is no irony. There are no optical illusions. Everything’s meant to tell a story…” Coming from a predominantly Thai Buddist society, the ignominy of a decapitated Buddha head portends a severance with faith and beliefs and perhaps a lack of moral dignity and purpose. This work was in Natee Utarit’s exhibition, Illustration Of The Crisis, in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2011; ARNDT, Berlin in September-October 2012; and in Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) Kuala Lumpur in 2013. He is no stranger to Malaysia, having exhibited at Valentine Willie Fine Art in early 2000s and at RKFA in 2005, 2009, 2013 as well as earlier this year at its Singapore outlet (Déjà vu: Your Past Is My Future). RKFA organised his solo, Optimism Is Ridiculous: The Altarpieces, at the National Art Gallery Malaysia in 2018. Natee Utarit’s international profile began when he was selected for the 3rd Asia-Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, Australia in 1999. He graduated from the Silpakorn University in Bangkok, majoring in Graphic Art. He was one of the Asian artists with the likes of Ai Wei Wei in Future Pass, a collateral event of the Venice Biennale in 2011. His other international exhibitions include Thai Contemporary in Beijing (2007), Art Stage Jakarta and Art Stage Singapore (2018). He won Asia Society’s Art Changer Award. In 2010, he was given a mid-career retrospective by the Singapore Art Museum called Natee Utarit: After Painting.