Venom-anti-Venom
Mural of the great naga battle, Bangkok National Museum
Venom-Anti-Venom is based on personal “sightings” of the Naga in Thailand, in the form of suggestive encounters of sounds, stories and places. The myth of the Naga is entertwined with local ideas of the body, the shaping of beliefs, aesthetics and sensibilities. It resonates with my ongoing research about the Chinese dragon and its role in Chinese medicine and spirituality. Through its mythical narrative, as manifested in Thailand today, the project journeys through a subjective view of Thai cosmologies.
“She tells me about her childhood obsession with the Naga. The slithering torso that occurs in her dreams. She would go searching for it in the bodies of water around her hometown in Issan. In the rivers, in the lakes, but it never goes to sea, she says, it always stays inland.
The Naga created the rivers around us and the rivers within us--mobilizes the flow of desires, goods, blood, bile, sputum, pus, sweat, fat, tears, saliva, urine, mucus, semen.
Politics of the flesh. The authorities that balance our strivings for life, for death, for pain, for thirst and the pleasures of fulfillment. Her black curly hair flew sideways with the hot breeze hissing to break free. The Naga is alive and well, she said. It was just in the news, causing unknown scratches on car hoods and building walls.”
--Excerpt from “Notes on Venom-anti-Venom” (here)
“She tells me about her childhood obsession with the Naga. The slithering torso that occurs in her dreams. She would go searching for it in the bodies of water around her hometown in Issan. In the rivers, in the lakes, but it never goes to sea, she says, it always stays inland.
The Naga created the rivers around us and the rivers within us--mobilizes the flow of desires, goods, blood, bile, sputum, pus, sweat, fat, tears, saliva, urine, mucus, semen.
Politics of the flesh. The authorities that balance our strivings for life, for death, for pain, for thirst and the pleasures of fulfillment. Her black curly hair flew sideways with the hot breeze hissing to break free. The Naga is alive and well, she said. It was just in the news, causing unknown scratches on car hoods and building walls.”
--Excerpt from “Notes on Venom-anti-Venom” (here)
Tummywood, wild guava
The leaf, the bark, the flower, to heal wounds,
reduce infalammation in case of snake bite
Study of the serprent, pencil on paper, 2016