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The Pink Man and his shopping trolley have travelled the world. They've been photographed in Bangkok, Venice and Bali, among others, and adorned gallery walls from Australia to Brazil. Now, this symbol of consumer excess has landed in Singapore.

The Pink Man is the work of Thai artist and photographer Manit Sriwanichpoom, who confronts social and political issues with wry humour. The Pink Man series started in 1997 after the artist visited a new shopping centre in Bangkok and was struck by its size and how Thais had embraced consumerism without a second thought.

With a trolley, a smile and dressed in a fluorescent pink suit, the same actor (a friend of the artist) has been photographed posing among many of Thailand's tourist attractions (a reaction against the Tourism Authority of Thailand's campaign 'Amazing Thailand'), as well as among urban dwellers on the streets of Graz, Austria.

While a casual observer might be baffled by the incongruous photos, closer inspection identifies crafty comments on how, in our current culture of consumerism, the ultimate pursuit of leisure is shopping (this will resonate with anyone wandering down Orchard Road, the Lion City's main shopping strip on a weekend).

Like most tourists, the Pink Man travels not to learn, but to consume, collecting exotic destinations, shopping and showing off, the artist said at the opening of an exhibition of his Pink Man in Paradise series (2003), shot soon after the Bali bombing.