The Parallel Universe of Unchaotic Events
May 2011
The exhibition consists of three works: The Parallel Universe of Unchaotic Events (2011), one of the three screens of The Missing Trilogy (2008), and Memory of the Last Supper (2007), based on shared themes and research. The condition of immigrants, particularly Burmese immigrants, has been at the centre of on-going research-based practice since 2006 both in Thailand and the Netherlands. In a similar manner to two previous works dealing with the mental journey of immigrants, The Parallel Universe of Unchaotic Events meditates on the daily mundane experience of living in isolation and fear in a rubber plantation. These nameless and faceless workers have become a major force in the Thai economy. The exhibition provides links between the postcolonial-related history of rubber plantations and the present history of violence associated with Burmese migrant workers and Southern separatists through the bodies of workers. It is an attempt to open up alternative narratives to those that once excluded them and embed them within the space, including the deeply ingrained psychological dimension. The staging of the workers working into the night, moving through the rubber trees with only the headlight visible, provides a haunting memory that is more often than not absent from our consciousness. It is an attempt to open up the possibility of an imagined alternative reality where the mundane turns into something extraordinary and the unknown stares back and forces us to look into the light and gain a new way of seeing.
The legacy of the British, French and Dutch empires in Southeast Asia and the introduction of rubber plantations into the area to sustain their economies and as a key tool of modern civilization as we know it today, has had long-lasting effects on the region both in terms of economic and social contexts. It has also generated a flow of migration, particularly at its economic peak, shifting from South America in the late 19th to early 20th century to Asia. To the present day, the rubber plantations are still responsible for the recent waves of migration within Southeast Asia, particularly since the economic crisis of the 1990s. In Thailand, Burmese immigrants have flooded to the south, while in Laos and Cambodia they have migrated to the northeast. Many have disappeared or become the object of acts of violence, in much the same way as slaves and workers of the colonial past, only with more complex layers of colonization.
การแสดงผลงานภาพนิ่งและวิดีโออาร์ต โดย โสภาวรรณ บุญนิมิตร และพีรชัย เกิดสินธุ์
1-11 มิถุนายน 2554
Gallery of Art & Design
มหาวิทยาลัยศิลปากร
