COLLECTIONS
The Light of Longing | ไฟแห่งความคิดถึง, 2021, Edition 1/8+2AP, Giclée Print – diptych, Size without frame: 36 x 36 cm each (14 x 14 inches each)
All images courtesy of the artist
The Light of Longing (2021) is a diptych photographic work taken by Apichatpong from an abandoned hotel on the Mekong River bank in Nong Khai. The lamppost, which used to function as a source of light, now no longer emits light. The work reflects the death of places and the decay of memories of the living. It is intentionally hung upside down to represent the current ecological destruction as well as the fallacy of logic and common sense. – M.L.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul revisited Nong Khai, Northeastern Thailand, during the pandemic lockdown in early 2021, and observed how the Mekong River has been transformed as a result of the upstream dams built in China and Laos. The landscape and flow of the river along the Thailand-Laos border evoke his memories of the place where he shot several of his films, including Luminous People (2007), Mekong Hotel (2012), and Cactus River (2012).
