SIAM'S GUY
Tiane Doan na Champassak

Parallel to his personal photographic practice, Tiane Doan na Champassak, a French artist of Asian origin, explores the theme of anonymity, collecting source material from a variety of sources including the Internet, family albums and magazine excerpts. Although his work often translates into bookmaking, having already released over a dozen publications; Siam's Guy is the first to apply his own photography and use of re-appropriation to bookmaking. The book borrows its title from one of Tiane Doan na Champassak’s collected items, Siam's Guy, a Thai erotic magazine from the 1960s and 1970s that remained available over the counter in spite of censorship. For this project, the artist selected 68 original pages from 100 issues of the magazine, superimposing them with his own female nude photographs and thereby injecting his contemporary esthetic into the somewhat dated images. Preserving the original use of censorship on the breasts and genitals through his act of superimposition, Champassak pays tribute to the exceptional, original design of the period.