bkk UNZINE Issue 26

Loving Light

Published: 1st September 2022

BKK Unzine Issue 24 - Loss

It’s that time of the year where it gets dark and the lights shine bright. Our lights are our artists and hopefully they’ll leave an unmatched mark in our readers minds. Maybe we have taken lights for granted as we all have our own screens that light us when we are bored, keep us awake, help us connect but also ruin us. On this occasion on the screen you are reading just as you’ve read before, we want to make a promise that we will shine light on our artists and their work one day in galleries near you. Because no matter how much artwork you can see on your screen there is nothing like being struck by the real encounter with art. We hope you stay tuned so as not to miss it when it happens.

Thank you as always and Enjoy. 
Maia, Jam, Venky, Boris

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Artists in this issue

Piya Profile

Steven Sills

Steven

June

Moe J

Dainel Romano

Steven

Ban Rak Sun

Piya Profile

Christian

Steven

Peppermint Shark

Moe J

venky

Steven

Andi

Piya Profile

Marc Kuegle

Steven

Chartlajam

Moe J

Boris

War Poem : Canto 7

War Poem: Canto 7

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Nurse’s assistant,
Farmer’s hand, some presence
A few minutes earlier
Providing food or fodder? – – 
No, just a dream of the patient, 
Of the hungry,  
With the spectre of
Mind and matter, 
Thought and reality, 
God only knows what. 

 

 

Page 2

Fever, even now–
Of infection spread delirium, perhaps, 
Fever of war:  desperate for it
To end, for chaos to quell 
And desperate for it
To continue to rile instincts 
With boredom such a stultifying
Estivation, a fossilization so
Unfathomable
That war is requisite 
To reinvigorate bones
Of these ancient
Rural dwellers

Page 3

Six months savagery
And those ravaged 
Become savages themselves, 
Become, like the aggressors,
Instinctual man once again, 
In such dark
Corridors of the mind
Where there is no light,
Only, from society,
The positive reinforcement
Of superficial platitudes of heroism 
Encouraging our atavism
As though it needed such coaxing

Page 4

Let us lunge our tongues
Into the bristled brows and
The napes of necks
Of minced men, these
Fine fellows, 
Who engaged in this incursion.
Heroes, we are, we say, 
But bloodthirsty savages
No less than they are
We know tacitly in
Our oblique thoughts. 

Page 5

Fever, even now
Of infection-spread
Delirium, 
Of ambivalence to war
Of natural man uninhibited 
And polished man assayed, 
Who is to say

Page 6

That there is any veracity in
That which they say–
That which they say being
That the invaded,
The recipients of Russian rapine, 
Are, as defenders of a nation, heroes
As though there were
Something heroic
In flawed creatures 
Clawing back 
Like dogged cats

Page 7

Pull pants down, animal, 
Anywhere in front of any one
If you have got to go you have got to go
No proprieties in war
Excrete in real time onto
The urine evaporated
Stretch of stenched land 
Raped and ravaged
In their bombardment, 
The whole obliterated
To something like a lunar satellite;
Yes my Ukrainian compatriot, 
Fellow alien, 
I found your blown off arm 
Charred amongst other charred remnants. 
Now what shall we do with it?
Landmines all around,
Look down, friend, careful where to step
Or we will be looking for another limb too

Page 8

Destiny
For the human fly
Then being that which
Is able to elude the fly-swatter
For a time;
Injustices being strewn randomly like
Dead corpses and yet
We are told to clamber over them 
Insouciantly with 
Aplomb and poise.

Page 9

And it was here that
One of ours
Was castrated to
An emasculated presence
As his debut
And so one of theirs the same in
Tit for tat plus– 
A similar situation
Months earlier, leading to
Castration and sodomization
With subsequent decapitation
And rot and then
The skull used as a bowl, 
Privates having hung around the man
In his last minutes, like a collar 
Before being thrown in a bonfire. 
A Russian alight
Running toward us, he being
A prisoner we made
Into a human torch

Page 10

Whether war
Made us the savages we became
Or released us to the savages we were
Inherently
It was
Rape and Rapine of
Russian Imperialists 
Thrust upon us against our volition
That made it such, 
Made us fixated in
Dark neurological pathways
Of the incipient being
Innate in all
And so
Here we are
Children of the summer still
Sliding in snows of mud and blood. 

Page 11

Come, medic, I need food. 
Open the curtains
I need light. 
Come roll me on my side
So I don’t get bed sores
Take away the bed tray with regularity
And at least let me suffocate
During this pandemic
Under a fresh face mask and
Not my own stench.

Poem by Steven David Justin Sills

Poet and Literary Novelist

Steven Sills

Light experimentation on my photos

Piya - Thorns of Grief

As a person with autism, retouching is not easy.
Prosopagnosia is a big deal too.
But I think I do better lately, light experimentation and the
golden ratio mask do help me.

June

Long Walk Home

Piya - Thorns of Grief

Acrylic on Canvas 60 x 40 cm
It’s walking home late at night under the Chicago
street lights with a key between my fingers just in case

Daniel Romano

Twinkle Stars

Piya - Thorns of Grief

Gouache on paper
It is always amazing to observe twinkle stars at night. Those lights from stars are flying to my heart and will last for long time in my memory.

Ban Rak Sun

Long Weekend II

Piya - Thorns of Grief

Acrylic on Canvas[ 85 x 85 w/frame]
LIGHT is very important for me. Daylight, I mean Possibly sunlight. I feel immediately energized and enthusiastic when I am outside, when I can see the sky and catch a glimpse of the sun. This is reflected in most of my paintings. Like in this last one, a relaxing moment at the pool. Obviously with some rays of LIGHT shining through the trees, creating luminosity and blazing reflections on the clear water.

Christian

Do not follow the light, John!

Piya - Thorns of Grief

Made with procreate

Peppermint Shark

Breaking out of Inside

Piya - Thorns of Grief

30 minute Digital [Autodesk Sketchbook]
Last few months have been quite difficult with me being very uncreative and unhealthy;
both physically and mentally. Working on an artwork after many months of staring at empty canvas and digital screens. Here is a Bo Burnham inspired sketch just to make myself draw something, something! I am starting to walk towards the light.

Venky

‘Guardian of Light’

Piya - Thorns of Grief

This AI artwork has been created with 3 different A.I tools and some luminosity post work. I wanted to depict the guardian of light.

Andi

In lieu of Lightning

Piya - Thorns of Grief

I tried for a good 2.5 years to get a picture of the Thailand rainy season and the lightning that accompanies it. After many many adventures and attempts out in the rain, I finally succeeded months before I moved back to Canada.

Marc Keugle

The light show

Piya - Thorns of Grief

Photo taken with Canon 60D
There was nothing more enjoyable for me as an expat volunteer than beauty of massive scenery in Bhutan. I loved in the south and it was foggy( You can only see fog everywhere) during the rainy season. The only time that we can expect the clear sky was around 4PM so I stood by my Canon 60D camera to make sure I can catch all the movements before it gets dark.Please enjoy the mood of my best friend here, his name is “split mountain”

Chartlajam

Light from Death Note

Piya - Thorns of Grief

Photo taken with Canon 60D
There was nothing more enjoyable for me as an expat volunteer than beauty of massive scenery in Bhutan. I loved in the south and it was foggy( You can only see fog everywhere) during the rainy season. The only time that we can expect the clear sky was around 4PM so I stood by my Canon 60D camera to make sure I can catch all the movements before it gets dark.Please enjoy the mood of my best friend here, his name is “split mountain”

Boris

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