messages from nowhere to nowhere

2015. Video (11:19 minutes, 16:9, silent), Photographs, dimensions variables

The project “messages from nowhere to nowhere” (2015) was initiated and executed in Pattaya city and the surrounding 

area in Chonburi province where I spent three months as an artist at Thaillywood Artist Residency. 

In this project, I work in the field of how global cultural flows in age of globalization. The idea of ‘translocality’ was

taken from the book ‘Modernity at Large:  Cultural Dimensions of Globalization’ by a contemporary anthropologist, 

Arjun Appadurai.

In the age of globalization, technology and mobility are increasing, which has caused many borders to be blurred.

Appadurai proposed that the movement or the flow of people, money, communication, technology, and ideas between

cultures is increasingly significant. ‘Non-places’ like tourist sites, free trade areas, border zones, refugee camps, migrant

hostels, etc. bring local cultures into the realm of translocal cultures. 

I chose to work on the subject of ‘translocality’ in Pattaya city where a tourist zone may be described as a kind of ‘translocality’,

even the city lies nominally within the jurisdiction of a nation-state. The city comprises of people from various background,

ethnicity, race etc., and is considered to be a city with high rate of migration. 

I collected conversations from residents living in the area, and then re-created and echo these ‘meaningless’ and ‘unheard’

voices. The dissatisfactions and disappointment are implied through messages of the owner. With issues from the poor living 

condition and to political situation. The owner of the messages are mostly people who migrate to Pattaya city giving reasons

ranging from economical factors to simply a matter of choice. The messages themselves not only resonate with Pattaya city

society, but also the society at large.

These stories were then represented in series of messages projected on walls and facades of various buildings and locations

in the cities where people pass by both in Pattaya city and at other locations, the messages draw the audiences’ attention, and

somehow provoke mutual  empathy to these ‘unheard’ and ‘unwanted’ voices. It is not only about physical boundary, but we all

share mutual space with a thin line lay in between.

A full text exhibition catalogue is written by Worathep Akkabootara  Download Catalogue PDF