Frame size: 118.6 x 118.9 x 2.5 cm
Music, Lives and Peasants is simultaneously representational and surrealist in its approach. It is significant as one of the few paintings to emerge relatively soon after the 6 October 1976 Thammasat University massacre that sought to actively address societal problems and issues. In Music, Lives and Peasants, Paisal depicts rural folk who have come into the city, their existence precarious and unsteady, vulnerable and bare-skinned in contrast to the residents of the city clad in fashionable wear. Oftentimes these Peasants may have had limited luck finding work, and they would bring folk instruments from the countryside as a means to earn some small change, utilizing skills that were available to them. The work is an early example of artists addressing the phenomenon of rural-urban migration that was rapidly occurring as Thailand became a Newly Industrialized Country.
