Invalid Throne

2018 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
9:31 minutes

Invalid Throne by Jakrawal Nilthamrong is a 35mm film that searches the protagonist Kamjorn Sankwan’s memory and connection with the land he grew up in. Using Nithamrong’s cinematic language of visual representations and soundscapes without narration, he highlights a non-human-centered view to meditate upon and reveal the sublime and unspoiled natural landscape ? as Nilthamrong states: “in the middle of nature where no man has claimed ownership”. The plains of Doi Changmub in Muang Phayao, Thailand is the historical site of a gold rush that experienced centuries of gold mining that financed high-class monasteries for the elite; today, the valley is a restricted park. In the footage, this splendor and exquisite natural landscape embodies verdant trees, a crystal-clear creek, and the ruin of gold mines. Sankwan is walking through the forest, rotating the wooden griddle in the creek, and eating food. Approaching the end of the video, an apocalyptic soundtrack is accompanied with a close-up shot of Sankwan’s face covered with gold. Ultimately, nature claims the truth of the realm and transcends the official narration of history.

Jakrawal Nilthamrong is a Thai artist and filmmaker who came to prominence for his unconventional approach to filmmaking. Conceptually, Nilthamrong interweaves Thai and Indian religious notions and practices which embody the complexity and imaginative capacity of the subject and viewer. From short films and documentaries to video installations and feature films, his works often incorporate concepts from Buddhism and East Asian philosophies, which acquire new meanings when revisited in a contemporary context. Nilthamrong’s approach is experimental with a purely cinematic language and surrealist aspects, his cinematic narratives investigate the idea of global change, questioning the idea of a human-centered worldview. Influenced by surrealist figures such as Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, Nilthamrong’s films are characterized by their enigmatic nature, lack of a linear narrative, and their use of the non-sequitur. Some of the recurring themes in his work include karma, reincarnation and destiny, drawing on his own beliefs as a practicing Buddhist in order to explore painful events in Thailand’s history and their resulting trauma. The results are perplexing and complex films that follow their own internal logic and defy easy interpretation, slipping between past and present, the real and the imagined.

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