Under Three Ballet Factory #Projectmural 2019 (Chapter 2/4)
In collaboration with Thapong Srisai and Wilawan Wiengthong
Tentacles N22

Inspiration

The work began with a shared question among the collective: what does it mean to be an artist within a capitalist system, and how does that differ, if at all, from being a labourer Researching the site, the team discovered that Tentacles N22 had previously functioned as a warehouse for food industry goods, notably fish sauce. This history became the conceptual anchor: a space once defined by industrial labour, now inhabited by artistic labour. The parallel felt worth testing.

As research deepened into fish sauce production and its cultural significance across Southeast Asia, the idea expanded to include a workshop and fish sauce tasting session, an addition made possible by Tentacles N22 team, who invited who invited writer Anusorn Tipayanon, whose personal research and experimentation with Southeast Asian fermentation, including fish sauce, salt-making, and pickling, brought both depth and lived knowledge to the collective's inquiry into regional food culture.

Way of work

For the performance itself, the team followed the rule of clocking in for work. For three days, they painted the canvas from 9am to 5pm in uniform, worn continuously, never removed. The mural appropriated the floor plan of N22 in its entirety, layering it with iconic artworks from different eras: a wry, aspirational gesture, the desire to one day belong among them.

The politics of labour ran through every dimension of the work. As artists who use the body as medium, the act of sustained physical making, muscle fatigue, time, repetition, the prohibition of rest, became a site of inquiry. The rules of labour narrowed the boundaries of being human, and within those constraints, something worth finding remained. On the final day, the team cooked Isan food and shared it with guests.

2019, Thailand, Performance art; Long-durational
3 days (9am–5pm) and mural painting, 180 × 320 cm

Guest lecture and Fish sauce workshop by Anusorn Tipayanon