Yuree Kensaku｜Meawna Lisa-Mercu(te)ry

Yuree Kensaku (1979, Bangkok) is a Bangkok-based multidisciplinary artist whose works are known for their electrifying colors, rich sense of humor and candy-coated cartoon characters with a touch of darkness. Wildly entertaining at first glance, Yuree's works consistently present bold, critical commentary on society, as well as intimate introspection into her personal life as a female artist.

Two paintings ( H300xW155 cm each) by Yuree Kensaku, a Thai artist, were created for the Paris Asian Art Fair, Asia NOW’s 9th Edition, October 19-22, 2023, at Monnaie de Paris. The project is linked to when Yuree was an artist in residency at Villa Navarra, Le Muy, France during the stay between May-June 2023.

Artist’s Statement

Before I started working on the project, I was fortunate to visit the art fair location, the Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint) beforehand, which I found to be a fascinating place in its physical charm and long-lasting human’s history of trading and monetary exchange. As I found out that The Monnaie de Paris is the 4th world's oldest continuously running institution since AD 864, I decided that my next project in France would be about currency and money exchange without hesitation.

The nature of NOW’s Asia is tied directly to the artistic view of Asia through the lens of art, while taking place in Europe. I aimed to create a set of parallel paintings in relation to the two sides of the world map; with the left side being Europe and the right side Asia.

Asia, the right side of the world map was painted first as it is my home and where the angles of my views to the world are from. In Asia, the concept of ‘lucky items’ that brings monetary success is common. Japanese Maneki-Neko, or one might call ‘the beckoning cat’, is conceptually similar to the Thai’s ‘Nang Kwak’, the beckoning lay in a traditional dress. Both are idols that are known to bring fortune and The Nang-kwak represents the pre-Buddhism belief of spirits in Asia.

The main character in this painting is the Meawnalisa, a play-on-word that literally means ‘a cat Mona Lisa’. She has the euro currency on her eyes with several busy hands, imitating the likes of the beckoning cat, inviting tourists to spend their money in France. I intended the river streaming behind her to be the country’s financial flow, the gold mountain being assets and wealth. The purple color in the background, however, was my impression of the lavender-coloured countryside that I saw while south of France two years ago. The townspeople adorned the lovely purple colour on their windows and doors.

The other painting features the main character Mercury, the mythological Roman God of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, communication, luck and more. To speak like an alchemist, Mercury can be referred to as mercury (Hg) or quicksilver

(chemical element- silver heavy metal); that is why Mercury in my painting is shining in silver color.

My Mercury painting recalls the time I spent in the artist-in-residency program at Villa Navarra in Le Muy. There was a Jack Russell dog called Marius who is only small but he is a pack leader of two other large dogs. He is a naughty boy but heart-meltingly adorable, so I decided to turn Marius the tiny dog into a giant nearly 3-meter-tall god. Continuing from my previous painting on the right (Asia), you might notice the

streaming river of money flowing west to the left painting as well. The gold mountains become cheese mountains as money gets transferred to Europe. I learned that France is home to 1,200 types of cheese. The two little angels bear a striking resemblance to the popular cheese brand logo – Caprice des Dieux. On the other hand, the gray curve in the background is Mercury, the planet, floating behind, with its rough surface looking like a type of cheese. I intended purple lavender fields to become purple vineyards on this side, referring to wine. Wine and cheese are not just food, but it is a gastronomic and economically important part of French identity. The silver mountain on the right became the green mountain on the left representing the rich, fertile landscape of the French countryside.

You might notice a crescent moon in this painting, it is brought from a story I heard from the French here that they call this crescent phase of the moon, “a croissant moon” (croissant de lune). Lastly, there are tobacco leaves, salt, clams, and rice; these are all objects we used to pass as money in trading in the past .

Mercury’s hand area has tobacco leaves and in front of Meawnalisa has a money bag as if they were trading these goods.

*The artist is presented by Galerie Enrico Navarra.