AN EXHIBITION BY
CHAI SIRIS AND TADA HENGSAPKUL
SEPT 30 – DEC 15, 2016
NOVA CONTEMPORARY, BANGKOK
“The malady of unfaithfully made time and history” is the initial thought shared between Tada Hengsapkul and Chai Siris in this collaboration.
Tada was back in his hometown investigating the traces of memory of places in which scars were left behind by American army based in Korat back in the 60’s. Many familiar places had become mystic spaces resulting in the effort of erasing the original meaning through time. Resurfacing the wonderment, Tada calls upon urban stories and family history in order to perform an alchemy that brings back what the authoritarian has forced us to forget.
Chai was traveling back to a physical space and a spiritual existence to investigate his family’s secret of when his mother swam across the Salawin river to the Thailand border. Too young to remember, she knew she was fleeing herself from a dictated authority. Chai teases and considers the actual incident to be a magical science fiction. He tells his story of love and death through love letters and screenplays. The transition of time, spaces, and power are floating in the air like a haunting ghost in their work.