You have to be obsessed with doing something or else you’re just an average Joe. 

I think it’s a waste to live life without seeing how strong or fit you can be. Just put on your running shoes and get out there. Run while you can. 

I don’t think many people are as motivated as me. 

There are ways to get around eating healthily and affordably. If healthy food is expensive, make your own juice. At the end of the day, it boils down to effort. 

My guilty pleasure is Swensen’s Mega Burger. I love it, even though I know it adds up to a million calories. 

I have too many friends who are doing full-time work on a day-to-day basis with a complete lack of interest. Do what you love and love what you do. 

No matter how much I love rowing and want to train full-time, the government doesn’t pay athletes. They’re not going to pay your hand-phone bill. 

I hope the government supports athletes no matter how big or small the sport is. Every athlete deserves an opportunity to be the best. 

It doesn’t hurt to be self-centered once in a while. If you’re always out to make people happy, you won’t be happy yourself. 

I complained once to my Japanese coach about having too many foreigners in Singapore, without realizing that he’s one himself. Truthfully, we can’t chase them away because they’re contributing to our economy. We must learn to adapt. 

Men with the right amount of muscle in the right places turn me on. 

Love is about being obsessed with something until you want to spend as much time as possible with it. You’re truly in love when you go through a day feeling empty without it. No guy can replace the love I have for rowing. 

I would want my future kids to grow up in a society where sport is big and well supported in every way. 

When I was in Sydney, I lived with a doctor and an engineer who managed to row in the morning at six, have coffee, breakfast and go to work by 8.30am. We seem to not be able to do what we really want here in Singapore. 

I want to be able to stop time because we’re always rushing and wanting to get things done without enjoying life. 

What are the concepts behind Siamese Blossom?

Panpong: Bangkok has been driven by commerce for so long. That’s why you’ll see rows of townhouses that look so stiff, compared to beautiful homes designed as residences. So when we got to design this project on Ramintra Road, we wanted to build a fully functional townhouse where the focus is on the back of the house. The garden there creates a green space instead of just a sad backlot. 

Do you think this award will change things here?

Puiphai: I don’t think so. I think the only way to make this eco-friendly trend sustainable is for the government to offer benefits, such as lower taxes, to any development that is eco-friendly. Green buildings are more expensive than normal ones. So the government should create these laws to persuade developers to think more about the future.

Panpong: I hope it will encourage real estate developers to think more about the clients who must live in those buildings. They must make the building more livable, rather than just thinking about maximum profits. If you build a more eco-friendly house, inhabitants will save money in the long term.

What do you want to see more of in Thai architecture?

Puiphai: I wish Thai architects would explore the international stage more because it’s really good to bring our designs to the world and have them acknowledge us more. When I went to Hong Kong to accept the award at MIPIM Asia for best residential development for IDEO Morph 38, I saw people from many countries, but no Thai was there. It’s a bit lonesome. 

What do you think about our laws blocking foreign architects from working here, such as in the case of Ole Scheeren?

Puiphai: It’s good that we have a world famous architect come here to design a beautiful building for Thailand like Ole Scheeren with the Mahanakhon project. But we should do things lawfully, too. The law specifies that buildings here must have a licensed architect from Thailand, so they should follow the law.

If you could plan a better Bangkok, what do you want to do?

Panpong: We should better connect the old town and the new town which is now the city center. It takes too much effort to reach the old town today.

Puiphai: I’d prefer not to drive a car for the rest of my life. I want Bangkok to be a pleasurable city to walk in. A good city must be a city where people can walk everywhere easily, not like now with the Bangkokians faced with bumpy sidewalks full of signs and motorcycles.

More on Siamese Blossom here. 

Thai society is a gossip society. That’s why my works always speak bluntly. I want people to see and fix problems directly.

The massacre of October 6, 1976, changed me and made me focus on politics. Previously, I was interested in Buddhism and believed that suffering was only in our mind. But the massacre made me understand that those who are in power are the ones who make us suffer.

I dropped out of college to be a teacher in Kampaengpet with the hope that I could create works like Vincent Van Gogh, who didn’t go to art school. But witnessing villagers’ suffering, poverty and daily problems like husbands beating their wives made me realize the difficulty of expressing such things. So I finally came back to finish studying arts and started working as social activist.

An artist’s duty is documenting today’s society. We should record the suffering of unknown people. We artists are the ones who have the time to reflect on these problems, not those who are struggling to make a living.

The poorest are always the ones who get trampled on. They live in fear that they will be in trouble if they rise up against the powers that be. I knew a man who lost his land because of the village head. When he filed a complaint, he was beaten by the police, who were just cronies of the village head.

Thai police are actually hit men in uniform. Many local activists were killed and disappeared after fighting with those in power. Police even hire professional hit men from prison to do certain jobs. Once the work is finished, they put them back in.

We’ve never had real democracy here. The power structures haven’t changed since we got a constitution 80 years ago. We’ve never developed people’s minds. Why do people still worship ghosts or trees to get lucky numbers from the lottery? 

Administrating this country is a job for to everyone. We don’t just vote so that a thief can rule our country. We pay taxes to choose a ruler who will take care of our country. Even a single voice, yours, is not weak. You can change things.

You can buy this country with B12 billion. Just throw out B30 million to 400 representatives for your party, then the election canvassers who control the villages will do the rest. This structure has never been changed. That’s why our country has gotten stuck like this.

Reforming this country is desperately needed. All of society must be involved, no matter whether you are farmer, student or office worker. Many Thai farmers suffered from being tricked by giant Thai food companies, who made them slaves until debt makes them go bankrupt, and they are forced to go work as laborers or prostitutes abroad. We need to shed light on this vicious circle.

Reform might sound utopian, but it’s better than doing nothing.

I want to put all the bad politicians in corrals at Sanamluang and let people come to look at them like animals at the zoo. They can see the ones who have done wrong to our country up close. You can’t even put them at a regular zoo because they are too stinky for the animals to bear. Also, their money would be seized and shared with the people in their constituency.

We don’t want another coup d’état because generals in this country are really stupid. They never understand the real problems of this country. They just sit around drinking B200,000 bottles of wine given to them by capitalists.

The army must be reformed, too. They shouldn’t have generals anymore. These generals just play golf and become “advisors” for giant companies. It’s like they are hired to protect these capitalist thieves. 

I wish we could run this country according to Dhammic socialism, which was invented by famous monk Buddhadasa. He said we should control bad people, give more freedom to good people and take more taxes from rich people.

We must change people to stop admiring the rich. The rich should be suspected of being thieves who are corrupt or sell ya baa (amphetamine) because there is no way that salarymen earning B15,000-B30,000 could ever able to buy the kinds of mansion they live in. 

Red shirts are hypocrites. The government and the legislators tore down the constitution by proposing that notorious amnesty bill. But now the government and red shirt academics are saying they must stick to the law of this constitution and that is why the new elections must happen in 45 days. 

Red shirt cronies such as Weng Tochirakarn are just dogs who want to get rid of feudalism. But then they will oust Thaksin and make the country socialist. 

Our education system just teaches children to be slaves to capitalism. You can study to work in the system or just sell noodles and dump that decades-long education that can’t be used in real life.

Confidence is essential to being a human. If you were born to just make a living, you’re the living dead.

Remember that you are valuable. Be confident you can be anything that you want and live a life that is worthwhile every day.

Tell us more about the installation.
There are two projection-mapping installations at the exhibition. Both works are poetic expressions of time-space in the city. The first installation, titled Path. 5, Silent Conversation with a Friend, involves projecting text and video onto 13 sheets of drawings on paper that's mounted on a wall, referencing the number of times I have moved as a foreigner in Singapore. The work speaks of time-spaces in friendship and the transformative potential. The second installation, titled Metron, is essentially a metronomic clock that doesn’t tell time but rather suggests its passing. 

How do the projectors contribute to your work?
The exhibition is held at a former military barracks that offer interesting and at times, challenging spaces. For example, Path. 5 is installed in a room that's only 1.5m wide. I needed a reasonable sized projection area. This is where the Canon XEED WUX 400ST full HD short-throw projector comes in handy—I was able to achieve a 1.7m wide projection area using a throw of 1.4m. Similarly with Metron, the high-resolution, short-throw projector allows for a compelling presentation of the work.

What is it about John Cage that inspires you?
The man was all about taking chances and making mistakes, so that is pretty inspiring to me.

How did your childhood experience in Surakarta influence your work?
I wish I knew. This is an ongoing question that I continue to ask myself, through the process of making art, one work at a time. Having said that, Drawing Cage seems to be concerned with certain peculiarities of the city, in particular the linearity of its physical environment and the non-linearity of its time. My childhood in Surakarta, being a rustic and much less urban place than Singapore, more or less contributed to this concern found in my work.

What strikes you most about people in general from all your years of observation? 
I find everybody I have met in my life to be creative in their own way. For instance, I invited my friends to draw a one centimeter line in 4’33'' for the making of Path. 5. It was an eye-opener to see the many ways in which such a line can be drawn.

Is Singapore a good location to do art? What could be improved?
Singapore is currently a very open and global city in Asia to base my art practice, given that my concerns revolve around Asian cultures, the city, home and identity. Having more centrally located art studios with low rent would be great.

Drawing Cage runs through January 24 at The U Factory. #01-06, Blk 38 Gillman Barracks. Free.

My childhood was filled with idyllic days of recess and after-school sessions of soccer with classmates.

It was a wonderful time undistracted by computer games, smartphones and social networking online. “Networking” back then, consisted of inter-class games and extra-curricular activities.

I wanted to make movies as a kid. In fact, I finally registered the script treatment for a movie idea that’s been sitting in my head for the past 8 years. I’m looking to find a director and co-screenwriter next year and finally get this up and going!

You should never build something the market already wants, because when you’re done, everyone else has moved on.

I come across as highly competitive and elitist to my peers or “rivals” in the digital publishing industry. That’s not the case really. I’m always only looking to better SENATUS.NET.

I have a knack for seeing potential in people—looking beyond what someone has already done but what he/she can do.  Everyone who has worked with us has found a springboard to bigger and better things. That makes me feel highly gratified.

People who are not aware of how self-indulged they are amuse me.

Life is about loving what you do, evolving when compromises cannot be made, and finding time to appreciate everything around you.

I pretend I don’t know how entrenched relationships are in the magazine business, with advertisers, brand managers and so on, as it would be easy to get overwhelmed, discouraged and ultimately give up.

I collect beautiful pictures, and store them on my own website “in the cloud”. So nothing will ever be lost, nor lose color, so to speak.

Smoking is an unhealthy and dirty habit I picked up from my banking years. My wife has been nagging me to quit.

Social media is going to be a part of life, in how we communicate with friends and business associates.

I am curious to know if enough Singaporeans realize that their destinies are in their own hands, the jobs they wish to have, the salaries they wish to be paid, are a direct result of how good they have shaped themselves to be. No one else can do that for them, especially not the government.

I believe that if you seek to become excellent, the pay will sort itself out.

What will always pique my interest is someone who is tremendously skilled in the art they have chosen to do. This can range from a litigation lawyer to a ballet dancer.

I am a Buddhist, a religion of which the best practices and philosophies were instilled in me by my wife, who grew up in Thailand.

What do we need to pack for a health retreat?
Comfortable active clothing and walking shoes.

What can we do to prepare for the stay, or after returning home?
If possible, try to lower consumption of animal protein prior to going on a health retreat. At The Farm we provide a sustainability program with recipes and hints for juicing upon returning home.

How can we make the most of our time on a health retreat, to get the maximum benefit?
Keep an open mind and be aware of your body and energy flow.

Is there any spare time for other activities or sightseeing?
Our guests have a rather full schedule, but a nature hike to the world’s smallest active volcano is a popular trip for our guests.

See our pick of health retreats in Southeast Asia and Australiasia here.

How did you come up with the idea for this play?

A few years back I came across this idea about writers who are experts at writing things that are easy and stupid. I call them hamburger writers because what they produce has a similar quality to junk food. It’s easy to consume, commercial and pleasing, like a soap opera. Through the work of these creatives and spin doctors, we’re close to living in a world of pure manipulation. They create images out of nothing. It’s all make believe. One big example was the Thatcher government’s “Labor Isn’t Working” campaign in the UK. In the end, it was the Conservatives who caused the problems. That just sums up how a picture can take hold in the minds of those who are so willing to believe. And, shockingly, how people can believe in something based on nothing. These thoughts come together in this play within a simulated situation taking place in Thailand, where three writers are kidnapped to help fix a problem for the prime minister.

What can we read into the name Utopian Malady?

Utopia is a term that most people are familiar with. As we are all aware, though, there’s no such thing as a perfect world—but some of us refuse to accept that. Many of us want to live in a pleasant world, yet everyone’s definition of that is not the same. It’s a disease—transmittable or not, I’m not sure—where you find yourself losing sense of what is real and what is not because of all the images and ideas put forward by the media, news and spin doctors. The Bangkok Post recently published a headline citing Suthep’s offer of a “utopian” plan. That’s amusing. Politicians relentlessly try to sell the public a utopia that doesn’t exist.

Politics have been the same over the past 40-50 years. Things change, of course, but it’s the same old game.

What can we expect?

It’s a challenge to keep things interesting in this play. As everyone now consumes information and appreciates performances from around the world, you really need to offer something weird and fierce in order to gain attention. What Utopian Malady has to offer is a seat on a rollercoaster. You can feel the dynamic drive. It drives forward. You don’t know exactly when it’s going to turn or where you’re going. That’s what you get, a certain uncertainty.

So, what is the message it tries to deliver?

It is to question the world we see and what we perceive as the truth. I believe there’s always something or someone behind what we deem to be reality. It’s like we cannot really believe in anything anymore. Nothing is sacred. There’s this saying by [American physicist and philosopher] Victor J. Stenger: “Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.” This play emphasizes how people choose to hold onto ideas that have been proved false—to some people, science and reasoning mean nothing.

Graffiti is fast, direct and amazing. It’s completely different from what I studied at university, fine arts. There, creating work involved a long, drawn-out process. But with graffiti, I can make something great in just 30 minutes!

I couldn’t stop after doing my first graffiti. I would paint everywhere I went and it got me in trouble.

I had to move out from my apartment to get away from an angry, high-ranking soldier. I got very drunk and graffitied his home. The next morning, he declared he would hunt me down. Luckily, I was not around whenever he came looking for me.

Then I painted an abandoned wall in my neighborhood, and it turned out the plot belonged to that same angry man, too! Later, I found the stuff in my rental room had been moved and some stuff was missing without any sign of a break-in. That was it! I moved out to live with some friends in town.

I used to paint only random things that I thought were cool, or just my name, or my face. That’s why I used Alex Face as my alias.

Good graffiti connects with people. Spray paint is expensive so every baht must give something back to the people. I started to pick up on local problems and play with the environment around me to express my ideas.

People can be touched by street art. One time an aunty came up and asked me why I was painting a picture of a kid at a garbage dump. I told her I wanted to remind people that so many kids have been dumped like this, too. She was so moved that she just murmured her agreement and walked away sobbing. 

You reach points in your life when you don’t know what to do next. I was stunned when my girlfriend told me she was pregnant. I sat crying in the dark, my mind totally blank. I was happy to be having a kid but I was just this poor artist who couldn’t guarantee anything for them.

Taking a journey can give you strength. My girlfriend told me to travel up to Chiang Mai to meet friends there. It really helped. I regained my focus and realized I would have to work harder to make everything better for us.

My Mardi the Bunny character was actually inspired by my daughter. When she was just born, her face looked so grumpy, like she was thinking really hard or worrying about her future in this troubled world. I sketched her face and started creating Mardi, a little child who wears a ragged rabbit suit. Rabbits also symbolize being a victim in this world.

Painting on the street lets me learn more about life. People always come up to talk about what I am doing and how they relate to each place, especially in the slums.

Outsiders have this perception that the slum is a scary place, but it’s just like elsewhere, with families taking care of their kids or parents.

Everyone erects their own thin wall whenever they meet a stranger. But once you knock it down, you will find just how easily we can get to know each other.

Art can help calm people, including those who create it. I’m always frustrated every time I have to face selfish people in the city. But graffiti helps me relax as I can release my feelings and regain my optimism through the nice people I meet.  

I love that Bangkok is full of random things: signs, people, cars or drain holes. It’s not a perfect city. It’s like people’s lives. It might look like an ugly town to some but it’s a wonderland for me. If you can survive in it, you will have so much fun.

You can measure the freedom index of a city by its graffiti. A city with limited graffiti means there’s strict control on people’s actions. In Bangkok you can find street art and graffiti all over the place. Artists just ask permission from owners directly, then spray!

You don’t need to be rich to be generous. One time I was riding my bicycle to an area really far away in the Suanpueng district of Ratchaburi. I got stranded from the other cyclists and I was completely exhausted with no water left. I just threw my bike on the ground.

A man saw me, gave me water and even said I could stay the night at his place for free. He said “My house is really big. I built it myself. You can stay here as long as you want. I just live with my daughter.”

In fact, his house was a really, really small shack. It just seemed really big to him because he has a big heart. And more than that, he only had one arm—he built the house with one arm. Meeting him was one of the greatest experiences. I’ll never forget it.

I wish I could travel more. I would love to go to the Philippines to the areas that Typhoon Haiyan destroyed. I would like to do some graffiti there. It’s the least I could do try to lift their spirits. I’d need a big budget, though, and I just don’t have that much money.

Miracles always happen when you’re on a journey. It makes me feel so lucky to have been born a human. 

How did Gay the Rabbit start?

I just wanted to parody Jay the Rabbit, which was such a huge hit on Facebook last year. I chose to make him gay because I am gay, and I think most offices can’t simply be divided into hetero men and women. There must be gays, too. Also, the name fits perfectly. Although I don’t have great drawing skills, I think the important thing is the stories, which carry the message that gays also have parents, bosses, as well as both gay and straight friends, especially cha nee or girlfriends who they are very close with. 

Some people say you’re simply riding on the coattails of Jay the Rabbit’s success.

In the beginning, yes. But now, I think we’ve proved that we have our own content and fans who love our style. All of my gags are split between my gay friends’ experiences and my own. People don’t compare it with Jay anymore. I’m on good terms with Jay the Rabbit, too. 

What kind of jokes do people like most? 

It’s usually those about cha nee friends, dished out in a sarcastic but endearing way. Like how women try to pick up guys in a gay bar. Many people are familiar with these scenes, so they get the humor. When the jokes are too gay-specific, they’re less popular. This shows the diversity of our fans, 60% of our fans are women. 

What brings women here? 

I think they are curious. They want to know what gays are thinking. As you know, it’s hard to define who is straight or gay these days. So they come to collect knowledge about gay men. Some of them are also “Y-Girls” who fantasize about gay romances.

They also come here for a laugh. Reading the comments is a must—many of them are so hilarious. They’re often funnier than the original post! 

Can you name a particularly memorable comment?

I posted a gag about Gay the Rabbit being kicked out of home after his mom found out he was gay. I normally don’t post things in real-time but schedule them. When it went online, fans really came together to comfort Gay, like it had just happened. I checked the page hours later and it was overwhelming. Many people had shared their experiences of coming out to their parents with comments like “I also went through this,” “My mother didn’t talk to me for two years.” But the one that touched me the most was one guy who had already came out to his parents. He said he showed the post to his mom and they smiled about it together. 

Do you have these experiences with your family?

No. Well, not yet. They don’t know that I’m gay. My mom even tried to act as match-maker to get me hitched with her friend’s daughter. She drove me to the girl’s house. I was freaking out. Luckily the girl wasn’t around. I’ve since banned my mom from ever being a match-maker.

Visit Gay the Rabbit at www.facebook.com/iamgaytherabbit

How did the idea for the original Run For Your Lives (RFYL) come about?

Way before events such as Colour Run Singapore and Race The Dead debuted here, we did some research and found that RFYL is actually one of the most popular runs in the United States. We were determined to bring this fun and exciting event to Asia, with Singapore as its first stop. I actually flew over to New Jersey last June to participate in one of the RFYL events as both a Survivor and a Zombie. I also managed to speak to the founder of RFYL and snag the exclusive franchise rights for the race. 

What sets Run For Your Lives apart from other running events (besides the zombies, of course?)

In RFYL, there are high levels of interaction between the Zombies and the Survivors. However, in other thematic runs, participants only run in a single direction with hardly any interaction. 

Why was Singapore chosen as the first Asian destination for the event?

Singapore generally has an active population and very receptive to such novelty ideas. Action X is mainly made up of Singaporeans, and we thought that it would be ideal to kickstart our Asia campaign here. 

Why do you think novelty running events are all the rage these days?

Novelty running events offer an alternative avenue for social interaction, and they catch on well on social media platforms. I think that people are constantly looking for out-of-the-box activities that add spice to their usual routines. Running events offer just that; they enable you to keep fit, stay healthy and have a blast all at once.

Can you offer some training/survivor tips that might be useful in outrunning zombies?

Participating in sports that involve a lot of turning and side stepping, such as rugby and basketball, would help a lot. however, teamwork is most important—gather your forces before overcoming a Zombie Zone, as the Zombies will be confused by a large crowd. Your chances of survival will therefore increase. 

How about some training tips as zombies?

Power runs help a lot! Also, keep a lookout for life flags—some sneaky Survivors may hide their flags behind their backs, so be wary. 

What is the best zombie getup you’ve seen to date?

An undead couple with a zombie foetus crawling out of the mother’s womb.

Why do you think there’s an obsession with zombies in the world right now?

I think it's because there has been a proliferation of zombie-related media recently—take the TV series The Walking Dead, the movie World War Z, and video games such as Left4Dead and Dead Rising, for example. 

Do participants actually become traumatised (burst into tears etc) by the zombies?

No, at least not in the United States. RFYL is a family-friendly event, with kids as young as 8 taking part.  

Does Run For Your Lives have plans to debut in other countries in 2014?

Definitely. We will debut in Taipei on March 29, and in Kao Shiung on May 17. We have plans to make an appearance in Malaysia in July, and may also return to Singapore in October for a Halloween event. We are also currently in talks with various overseas partners in Thailand, Seoul, Australia, Hong Kong and Brunei. 

Run For Your Lives takes place on January 11 at The Padang. Visit www.runforyourlivesasia.com for more details.