The Lumphini Zodiac

Modern sculptor for public spaces is, as everyone knows, almost uniformly hideous. It is said the modern architecture is the best argument there is against modernity, but in fact modern sculpture surpasses it in inanity and ugliness. Sadly, sculpture as an art form is debased beyond repair and has been so for over a century. Sculpture in the XXth century was completely undistinguished. Readers of these pages may have noticed that although the author has sometimes devoted space to examples of modern painting or other products of modernity that he has found worthy, in all his travels through perhaps twenty or more cities in India and Asia not a single item of modern sculpture has caught his attention. Every city has its parks and squares and malls and plazas, and all are adorned with commissioned works of modernist sculpture. Almost all of it - without exaggeration - is rubbish. 

It was with considerable surprise, therefore, that the author was ambling through the great green pleasantness of Lumphini Park in central Bangkok - of all places - recently, when he encountered an intriguing piece of modern sculpture that is certainly worthy of note. This is not because it is especially beautiful or elegant, but rather because it is on an arcane and esoteric theme and is of strikingly unusual but traditional conception. Most modern sculpture is abstract - where it is not just an assembly of junk - and lacks any coherent content. This work is an exception. The sculptor is a Siamese gentleman, Mr Thana Lauhakaikul, and the work was commissioned by the Thai-Japanese Association in 2007 on the auspicious occasion of His Majesty the King's eightieth birthday. It is officially entitled 'Sagittarius'.

 

The inspiration for the work came to Mr Lauhakaikul from the fact that the King, as also the Emperor of Japan, Akihito, are, according to the modes of Western astrology, born under the sign of the far-sighted archer centaur Sagittarius. Beloved King Bhumibol was born on the fifth day of December in 1927 and Emperor Akihito on December 23rd, 1933. The sculptor therefore decided upon an astrological theme to underline both the King's birthday and, at the same time, the one hundred and twenty years of Japanese-Thai diplomatic relations. The sculptor decided upon a depiction of the twelve signs of the Western zodiac in the form of a round, or rather oblong, table, to be constructed of metal and to be set in the lawns of Lumphini Park. 

The choice of the Western zodiac is interesting in context, because in Siam, as throughout the Orient, the Chinese zodiac, or some variation upon it, is widely preferred and the Western zodiac is rarely used. In this case, though - and this is what makes this work especially remarkable - the artist has seen fit to reinterpret the Western zodiac in an entirely oriental manner. Drawing upon symbolism and motifs that are entirely Sino-Asian he has decided to show the twelve signs of the zodiac as twelve turtle eggs arranged around a turtle shell which itself is inscribed with the spangled heavens. This is a deeply traditional and ancient symbolism. The curved, hemispherical turtle shell is a microcosmic representation of the upturned bowl of the sky and the cracks and markings and divisions of the shell are representative of the stars and constellations. Actually, we do find this exact symbolism in western sources - the Homeric Hymn to Hermes being the conspicuous instance - but it remains intact in oriental symbolism but is now gone from the common store of symbols in occidental cosmology. Happily, Mr Lauhakaikul has chosen to restore it, blending or rather re-uniting east and west. This is to say that his vision is not, in fact, syncretic, although it appears so. 

Please find the author's photographs of this intriguing sculpture, the Lumphini Zodiac, below:

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black