Continuing from his previous newspaper series, Rirkrit Tiravanija has shifted from text to drawing with this military series. Amidst two parallel elections in the United States and Thailand, and across two different political systems, Tiravanija, who is based in both countries, felt that the situations were equally and similarly awful. The initial purpose of this painting was to exhibit it on the day of Thailand’s first election after years of military junta. However, due to the sudden postponement of the election day, the work did not have a chance to exhibit on the expected date. The work is now kept in darkness, waiting for the perfect chance to shed its light. The wall dividing the United States and Mexico embodies the tyranny under Trump’s rule, a form of dictatorship under democracy. It is considered the ‘Berlin wall of the New Era’ which separates not only nations, but families, leaving children stranded on their own. The newspapers in the background are collected on important days related to these political issues and history, then reassembled for this painting. The shoes and equipment seen in the painting are those that belong to the military force, symbolising the face of Thailand’s situation under junta regime. The ceramic top boots supporting the canvases create an illusion as if two soldiers are holding the canvases in the back. To Tiravanija, dictatorship exudes its force not only in the front, but behind every single aspect of our daily lives, from business, sport, entertainment, to even general news. Tiravanija overlays Philip Gustons’s comic symbolism, alluding to his alignment with Guston’s notion of the impossibility of a ‘pure’ artwork or true abstraction, or more broadly, ideological absolutism. As observed by Tiravanija, “in Guston one finds an artist not just of craft and skill but of total commitment to doubt and criticality, an artist of possibilities and at the same time the confluence of impossibilities.”