The series of “A Conversation with the Sun” photographic works with hand drawings on glass stem from Apichatpong’s study of philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti’s (1895 – 1986) ideal of being. It deals with the artist’s interest in exploring machine autonomy and man-machine collaboration.

The first layer is an image of fabrics generated by AI. Apichatpong associates the fabrics with cinematic curtains and screens, “which are a blankness that can be filled with light and memory.” Some of Apichatpong’s installations and performances have been about experimenting with different ways to activate the screen. He uses the neural network architecture platform VQGAN+CLIP for this piece, generating images that are considered traces of memory – these are essentially interpretations and combinations of images produced by humans. The question is whether artificial intelligence can be defined legitimately by its otherness.

The second layer of the work is Apichatpong’s own drawing on top of the images, created intuitively “as a child would, curiously.” This juxtaposition of deep memory with shadowless, weightless forms evokes Jiddu Krishnamurti’s teachings on how to be, staging an ephemeral and substantial dynamic.
 

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Apichatpong Weerasethakul was born in 1970 in Bangkok and raised in Khon Kaen. He studied architecture at Khon Kaen University and later received an MFA in filmmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He started making films and videos in 1994 and has become an independent film producer in Thailand.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films and artworks are essentially the same. Political and the social issues are always alluded to, playing integral parts in his mysterious and poetic artistic language. By working chiefly with time and light, and by working meticulously with actors, Weerasethakul builds a delicate bridge for the audience. He allows them to travel through the real and the mythical, the individual and the collective, the spiritual and the somatic, entering a rich consciousness via unorthodox narratives, where they can find the artist’s memories, mythologies, dreams and desires.
 

Lender: Kiang Malingue, Hong Kong