15/07/2021
BAB Artist 3- I-na Phuyuthanon
Featured Artwork-HARMONIMILITARY
I-na Phuyuthanon’s HARMONIMILITARY video installation, housed at the BACC, follows a woman drifting through village life in Korlorgaway, Narathiwat, dressed in a pale green hijab. She wanders, perhaps searching. At other times she’s standing still. In other scenes she is suddenly absent. In one close-up shot, we see her eyes.
The slow, jarring visual scenes are set against a busy soundtrack of chants, electric-sounding white noise, typing, hammering and military gunfire. Then, finally, music. The artwork discusses how people in Thailand’s southern provinces find peace in nature, rural life and Islam, despite a backdrop of violence, danger and the presence of the military.
The piece was inspired by I-na’s own experiences and in meetings with others:
"A man who was framed as a terrorist told me that he preferred to be shot and die like my uncle. He felt being a scapegoat was a living death sentence because he was arrested, went through a lawsuit and was released, and this circle began again and again. Many foreigners asked me why local people including these scapegoats do not move from the Deep South. It is because people there believe that God predetermines every event in their lives. We have to surrender to things that we cannot control. I titled the video Harmonimilitary because the military became a culture in the Deep South and Muslims try to harmonise with it in order to survive each day.” – I-na Phuyuthanon in an interview with the Bangkok Post, Inspiration Born from Tragedy.
I-na has exhibited international in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and South Korea. She works as a Researcher at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Srinakharinwirot University, specialising in issues related to the three southern border provinces of Thailand; Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, where I-na was born.
See more of her work (and adorable pictures of her cats) on her Instagram page .phuyuthanon
The F word Team- Amy Poulton
