For his solo show If I can make one wish…, Saroot Supasuthivech constructs a sequence of videos, dividing a two-channel work into four screens across the gallery space. Centred around the River Kwai, this body of work forms an imaginary memorial for the laborers who died building the Burma Railway in World War II.
Drawing from four languages and a range of cultural sites under one locale, Supasuthivech exposes the devastating multitude of lives affected by the railway’s construction. He questions the institutional refusal to confront both history and death, meanders through the inexplicable ambiguities and commonalities of grief, and examines the lingering remains of the spirit.
The artist also asserts something universal and unifying in this loss. He suggests that these crossing energies ultimately intersect in the same spiritual and emotional reality, imagining a shared realm of blue. We are engulfed by the echoes of the colour’s intrinsic and overlapping meanings: blue subtly conveys sadness, represents trust in the name of unity, and slowly unveils the serenity of truth.
Text by Colette Auyang
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