The Mondrian Buffalo 2013 digital print is a part of the “Save Thai Buffalo” series initiated and realised by Thai Isaan artist, Maitree Siriboon, aka Isan Boy Dream. Maitree, a native to Ubonratchatani, is from a region in Thailand known for grass-lands, rice farming and labour. As a proud local, his work largely creates dialogues between multiple aspects of tangible and intangible cultural references with modernity.

In 2010, Maitree was working on another project called “Dream of Beyond” which was about exploring the changing relationship between buffalos and its humans. A few years later in 2013, whilst visiting the Chiangmai zoo, Maitree say that they had painted the elephants to look like panda bears. With its comic relief, Maitree found the concept amusing but also sparked an interest in him that a live organic being was used as a canvas to portray a message. This then inspired him to develop this concept further and thus “Save Thai Buffalo” was created. It is a conservation campaign and art project married together, to reignite love and care for these animals.

As the agriculture industry moves further away from traditional methods of farming, buffalos who were once the main machine are now replaced by motorised tractors which as a result also shifted their economic worth, leading to a decline for their use and then less care is taken for them. In addition, buffalos in Thai culture and language are associated with stupidity and idiotic behaviour. Therefore, with their labour needs no longer in demand and as an animal not regarded as majestic nor are they feared or worshipped, buffalos have presently become insignificant despite their great contribution to Thailand’s farming industry.

Maitree actually used his own money to save some buffalos from the slaughter house, featured in this series. The concept was a simple appropriation of Western modern art paintings, to intrigue viewers with contrasting aesthetics. The artist wanted to use recognisable paintings so he opted for pop art, famous tableaus as seen in world- renowned modern art museums and iconic patterns from fashion houses.

The artist, Maitree, painted the buffalos with holi powder and illustrated paintings such as Starry Night by Van Gogh entitled Van Gogh Buffalo, 2015, Andy Warhol portraits entitled Andy Warhol Buffalo, 2015, Danse by Henri Matisse entitled Matisse Buffalo, 2016 and as shown here, the Composition series by Piet Mondian entitled Mondrian Buffalo.
The effort was in the hopes that the public would offer the same attention to Thai buffalos that is given to these famous art works. There were 10 pieces in total, all of which were originally exhibited at the YenakArt Villa art gallery in Bangkok.