History]]> Politics]]> Identity]]> Prapat Jiwarangsan]]> Labour]]> Koi Glai Ban (Persons Far from Home), a compilation of short biographies—edited by the late scholar Pattana Kitiarsa—penned by Thai migrant workers. He took particular interest in the stories of oppression and resistance recounted by Ploy, a woman who was employed as a sex worker in a makeshift “jungle brothel” located in the scant forestry of the island city-state. Inspired by Ploy’s diary entry, the artist’s investigation aims to excavate underground stories of transnational labour and frame them within processes of land appropriation for cultural, economic, and leisure pursuits. During the residency, Jiwarangsan will expand his research on migrant workers’ relationship to woodlands with the goal of developing a medium-length documentary film and a new series of works.]]> Prapat Jiwarangsan]]> Installation]]> Video]]> Southeast Asia]]> Labour]]> Politics]]> History]]> Prapat Jiwarangsan]]> Southeast Asia]]> Labour]]> Displacement]]>
The screening will be preceded by an introduction by the artist.

The Asylum (Dok Rak), 2015, 9 min 40 sec

DJ Dok Rak used to work for a radio station in Chiangmai. After the shut-down of anti-military radio stations that followed the 2014 coup d’état in Thailand, she lost her job. “Ah Tay” is a boy of Karen ethnicity who secretly works in a village and fears being sent back to Myanmar due to the lack of identification documents. Dream-like sequences unfold around a pond, a symbolic sanctuary where the two characters face the reality of their submerged existence and quietly yearn for a far-fetched freedom.

17 Mar 2020, Tue 07:00 PM - 08:30 PM
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road

The Wandering Ghosts, 2017, 20 min (Singapore Premiere)

Until today, thousands of Thai migrant workers live in a state of uncertainty in South Korea. Stringing together interviews, footage from the workers’ everyday lives, and recordings of job-hunting phone calls, the work flits between generations of migrants including an 80-year old Thai veteran who fought in the South Korean Army during the Korean War of 1950. Alternating sharp and saturated images with visual blackouts, Jiwarangsan captures the elusive quality of the workers’ existence.

Destination Nowhere, 2018, 7 min 19 sec

Drawn by the economic boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s, a large number of migrant workers relocated to Japan without a proper legal status. Destination Nowhere tells the story of a Japan-born Thai teenager whose mother, a Thai migrant worker who “illegally” lived in Japan for many years, was deported back to Thailand. The artist’s scraping of the boy’s silhouette, together with photographs and objects inspired by his life, alludes to the young man’s unrecognised status and his fight to stay in the only country he calls home.]]>
Prapat Jiwarangsan]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Artistic Research]]> 17 Jan 2020, Fri 07:00 PM - 11:00 PM
18 Jan 2020, Sat 02:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Blocks 37 & 38 Malan Road

Residencies OPEN offers a rare insight into the artist’s studio. Through discussions, performances, installations, and presentations of works-in-progress, Residencies OPEN showcases the diversity of contemporary art practice from around the globe and the divergent ways artists conceive an artwork with the studio as a constant space for experimentation and research.

Featuring Artists-in-Residence: Rossella Biscotti (Italy/Belgium), Carolina Caycedo (United Kingdom/United States), Fyerool Darma (Singapore), Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore), Prapat Jiwarangsan(Thailand), Alecia Neo (Singapore), Trevor Yeung (Hong Kong).

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Rossella Biscotti]]> Carolina Caycedo]]> Fyerool Darma ]]> Ho Tzu Nyen]]> Prapat Jiwarangsan]]> Alecia Neo]]> Trevor Yeung]]> Southeast Asia]]> Europe]]> North America]]> Asia]]>