Self-Respect PRAIVA RAIVA

Praiva Raiva — Self-Respect
Bronze sculpture — Museum of Contemporary Art, Bangkok

Praiva Raiva is a Thai artist who spent over ten years creating what he calls his “Wild Sculptures.”
His life itself feels like art — shaped by solitude, nature, and the search for freedom. He once lived with a hill tribe in northern Thailand for four years, learning from their dreams and their closeness to the forest. You can feel that raw, untamed spirit in his work — it’s almost tangible.

In an interview from 2016, Praiva said that he never planned to become a sculptor. As a young man, he wanted to draw, not sculpt — but life, with its strange twists, took him elsewhere. He spent years in the mountains, curious about what people dreamed of when there was no electricity. “They dreamed of animals, trees, and the world around them,” he said. That vision — wild, vivid, deeply connected to nature — never left him.

His first sculpture was a bull, created in the same foundry where Thailand’s great artists once worked. That moment changed everything. From there, he kept creating — animals, spirits, guardians — each cast in bronze, each pulsing with life. One of his works even reached Hugh Hefner’s mansion in California; others found homes in MOCA Thailand and private collections across the country.

Praiva’s philosophy is simple but powerful:

“Everything made through the inspiration of an artist reflects patience, thought, and truth. Nothing comes easily. Plan your work, stay focused, and never waste time without purpose.”

When I saw Self-Respect for the first time, it was from the other side of a corridor. Even from a distance, it pulled me in. And when our eyes met — mine and the tiger’s — I couldn’t think of anything else.
So much power. So much emotion. It felt almost alive, as if the beast was on the edge of losing control — or perhaps finally finding it.

Then I noticed the title: “Self-Respect.” And it hit me.
This is exactly what we all need to carry with pride and defend — even when the world tries to crush it with expectations, judgment, and noise.

I see so many people crawling through life, trying not to bother anyone, trying to blend into the background. But this sculpture — this tiger — reminds me that we were not made to shrink.
We were made to stand tall, to know our worth, our strengths, and even our weaknesses — and to respect ourselves fully.

This piece feels like me — fierce, emotional, protective of my boundaries, sometimes raw, always real.
What about you?
What do you see when you look at this sculpture?