STEPHFF

By CC

From the Mekong to Gavroche, from the Bangkok Post to The Nation, via Courrier International or Le Paris Phuket, the corrosive drawings of Stephff have for a long time taken a cruel and funny look, filled with derision, revolt and distance, on political life and the biases of society. Installed in the middle of his impressive collection of tribal art, the journalist artist also paints contemporary graffiti-ethnic works, between two harsh criticisms of the power in place or of his contemporaries.

This last theme is now available in the form of books with the release of Farang Affairs, sets of drawings either unpublished or revisited, brought together in collector’s editions with a very limited print run of 1500 copies, only available from the author via his Facebook page.

Stephff promises it, once sold out, there will be no reprinting, so don’t miss this rarity containing some politically incorrect pearls that will never be republished.

When we met for the article in Le Paris Phuket in 2015, you already told me that you wanted to publish a book on a real theme, like that of the Farangs. It was finally released in 2020, then #2 this year, tell me about these years of gestation of Farang Affairs. It’s not gestation, it’s just procrastination!

My job as a political cartoonist was eating up a good part of my energy, therefore I let the book build a little bit by itself by publishing this series once a week in the Phuket Gazette and later on in the weekend edition of The Nation.

The problem is that it was just an accumulation of drawings sometimes a bit sloppy, because always made at the last minute in the urgency of the deadline...

Sometimes I had the problem of making too many drawings on the same theme, like bar girls, and not at all on other subjects. However, in a book you need all the themes to be addressed. In short, when I lost my job at The Nation in June 2019, I immediately took advantage of this free time to say to myself, “come on, you finish this damn book once and for all! I’ve been talking about doing it since the time of Gavroche, so 25 years!” But I quickly realized that I was not just going to make a stupid compilation of my work (which was what most of my friends in Thailand suggested), but that I had the opportunity to do a little better, to realize something more thorough with new drawings. So that’s what I did and it took quite a while...

But I’m really happy with the result and frankly I don’t say that often about my work. I think the people who follow my drawings have been pleasantly surprised. For me it was really worth it to go to great lengths and fall behind (I was 4 months behind my first promises to finish the first opus by the end of December 2019). After all, who’s going to complain about getting twice as good a book while waiting a little longer? This is not an Airbus A380 delivery!

The success of the first opus seems to have made you want to come back to it?

First of all, it’s a relative success. I sold 1,500 copies of the first one, but that’s only 1,500 copies and it’s not enough to make a living. But in any case, it’s been a big hit with those who appreciate this kind of humor.

How is Volume 2 different?

It’s not really different, it’s a collection of other situations from the expat’s life in Thailand. Other than that, I’d say it’s a little more polished in the drawing. I’ve also pushed certain situations a little further into the absurd.

Will there be more?

Yes, I’ve collected enough ideas to do a volume 3 and a volume 4; in fact, I’m already working on the storyboard for 3 and 4 simultaneously, so as to be able to manage a good distribution of situations and gags right away. There’ll also be a “naughty” special edition with a print run of just 500 copies, to be sold “under the table” (impossible, I think, to get an ISBN hahaha!!!).

You work surrounded by your primitive art collection...

Since becoming interested in primitive art, I have been looking for what no one collects. It’s kind of the Holy Grail to find something local that no one has thought of yet. That way, I can set up any exhibition in an ethnographic museum in Europe!

I am piling up in my house, it is a little delirium. Since I’m a crazy collector, the idea is to stop collecting anything and focus on things of value, art, and then make it my retirement.

I am unable to keep money, so I might as well slam it for things that are valuable!

I imagine that there is a direct filiation between your tribal paintings and your collections?

Yes, but precisely, the paintings came naturally. I also collect paintings and I have a collection of artists somewhat similar, African, etc.When you collect paintings by artists, it creates a stimulus, you realize that, whatever the artist, no work is ever perfect, that there are lots of flaws, and step by step it makes you more relaxed, in fact, you tell yourself that you could do it too.

When I see a piece, when it’s a punch in the face, it is so beautiful and I can never afford it, I put it on my computer and tell myself that I will be able to draw inspiration from it one day. It’s a bit of a way to counteract frustration by telling myself that I’m going to take it on. There is a whole idea where the perfect piece that you cannot have, you will create it yourself.

You seem to diversify more and more with this tribal-inspired art, will this translate into a more important work in the years to come?

My work is not tribal art per se, it is just contemporary art inspired by tribal art.

What I do is therefore largely influenced by this so-called primitive art, mainly from Africa and Oceania, but also by a lot of modern artists like Keith Haring. As soon as I love a shape, a design, whether it comes from a Paul Klee or from an obscure celebrity, I appropriate it and use it my way. I even self copy quite often, because after a few years, if I look at one of my older works, it inspires me some new thing. In short, it’s a bit of an endless story and I could paint another 500 years without losing my inspiration. So, yes, the ambition is to produce a larger, more mature, stronger work.

I really have big desires and good ideas to develop, but always remains the problem of time and my guilty pleasure to disperse myself quite easily. Even if I keep only the painting, I still disperse and do the opposite of what galleries and art pros expect, I have fun and I don’t necessarily develop a particular style. But hey, I still manage to sell this way. It would bother me terribly to lock myself in a style just for marketing and career reasons. So too bad, I may never be a real great artist, but at least I’m having fun and I must say that of all my activities, it is probably the painting that turns out to be the most recreational for me.

What evolution(s) do you see in this work over the last 3 years?

It’s evolved mainly because I’ve been more productive in recent years.Well, evolution or not, it’s still hard to make a living from paintings alone, especially when that’s not all you do. I do feel that there’s been an improvement and I’m finding it easier to surprise myself, so I’m having a good time. After that, all that’s left is to surprise others, and that’s still a long way off!

Finally, I want to talk about your titles, usually always in the comic/cartoon spirit. Is it a way for you to keep a link with the humorous and cartoony side of your artistic production?

The titles of my paintings? Yes, it’s a bit difficult to explain, a title is a mixture of spirituality, which I really fully support, with a layer of self-mockery.

In fact, the title ends up being exaggerated to the point where it doesn’t mean much anymore. It is more the beauty of the chosen words that is supposed to go with the painting. And at the same time I make fun of my titles myself by making them super snoring and pretentious. So in fact it still starts from an intuitive choice of words that go with the painting, then in the end it doesn’t really mean anything anymore. Besides, in general, I turn down people who ask me to explain these titles to them, because I’m unable to. Now, some of these titles still make sense. Basically, if I use the word Cosmic Christ or Cosmic Buddha, it really means something, in New Age spiritual literature for example, and that’s really what I wanted to paint. So maybe I’m exaggerating my own sham a bit by pretending that my titles are meaningless. I hope it’s clear? Hahaha!

To order Farang Affairs 2 or artworks, contact  Stephff : stephff.artist@gmail.com www.instagram.com/stephff_art