memory

…..missing


2005 Mixed media Installation 600 x 450 x 600 cm


…. missing is concerned with the lost of life and identity in the process of Disaster Victim Identification methodology – the aftermath of 26th December Tsunami disaster in Thailand. Only 779 out of 4275 reported missing cases were resolved. The DNA identification process signifies bodies as evidence of existence as a form of scientific data however it offers no relevant relationship to the life of those who died. The information on what we have found and what is missing do not correspond.

According to the local believe in Buddhism teaching that everything is in transitory, life is always in a state of transition and impermanence. The locals believe in spiritual life after death; red candles connect and transfer message between the living and the dead, and that any attempt to keep the body for investigation will prevent the soul from leaving the body and rebirth.

The work…. missing is not concern about the lost of population and economy, but the lost of culture relationship in the traditional way of life. Western scientific knowledge cannot free us from our self-attachment therefore this does not lead us to an essence in life. The work aims to question over legitimation of representation power, which turns human flesh into collective data – the world is organised in hierarchical order, to maintain power domination of the state over its own citizen.

Ocean's sorrow is a Photographic series dedicate to every missing life from 26th December Tsunami disaster. When I arrived to the effect area there was around 2000 report missing person hang around the wall. While most of them shown highly hope to found the person alive this hope were wash away by time as more and more identify bodies found. My work concern not the missing bodies but the missing relationship between us who alive and those who pass away. To be relate mean to be in contact and contact must be something direct not from a represent image. For me as an artist who witness this traumatic event. I use photographic as a mean of expression rather than document this disastrous event in historical evidence. By reveal the damage condition of the image I suggest that like those life that pass away the image in photographic also subject to decay by time.