Today will take care of tomorrow
2022 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
40:00 minutes
Pratchaya Phinthong
Pratchaya Phinthong’s work has explored the mineral and karmic economies of Laos, a country that shares language, beliefs, and a long border with his own native region of Isaan (Northeast Thailand). The most bombed nation on earth, Laos still bears the physical and mental scars of the U. S. military’s epic aerial offensive, launched largely from bases in Isaan, during the Second Indochina War. Between 1964 and 1973 the US dropped an estimated 250 million cluster bombs on Laos. As much as 30% of them remain there in the ground, waiting to explode, despite sustained transnational efforts to clear them. The video work, Today will take care of tomorrow , borrows its title from a poem by Paul Malimba about the country’s beautiful but dangerous landscape. The subtly defamiliarizing gaze of an infra-red camera seeks out trees that have absorbed shrapnel from this indiscriminate violence, around the ruins of an old Buddhist temple half-destroyed by the bombing. Not only have the trees assimilated the foreign matter and thrived despite their wounds, but years later the embedded metals act like accidental amulets, destroying the blades of illegal loggers who must then leave these areas alone. As if protected by an invisible force, the forest has absorbed one violence, which shields it against another. That one time should take care of another may seem like wishful thinking, but this is no personification. The aphorism points to circulations that are both more substantial and more than human. Pratchaya exercises his trademark poetics of conversion and substitution in an ongoing collaboration with inhabitants of Napia Village, near the prehistoric Plain of Jars in Laos’s central Xiangkhoang Plateau. Here, the mineral surplus of global conflict is melted down in small family-run foundries and reborn as decorative or functional domestic objects.
Pratchaya Phintong’s works often arise from the confrontation between different social, economic, or geographical systems. They are the result of a dialogue, and bring all their poetic forces from an almost invisible artistic gesture. From his travels, the artists collects objects, materials, and stories that he assembles in his work. He often looks at gathering forms and matters that are opposite but that complete and correspond to one another.
Colors:
Other related works, blended automatically
» see more
© » KADIST
Pratchaya Phinthong
2018Untitled (Ring) consists of two prominent elements contained in water filled glass sphere...
Related works sharing similar palette
» see more
© » KQED
SF IndieFest Is a Valentine to Movies and Movie Lovers | KQED Skip to Nav Skip to Main Skip to Footer upper waypoint The Do List SF IndieFest Is a Valentine to Movies and Movie Lovers Michael Fox Feb 8 Save Article Save Article Failed to save article Please try again Email Steve Zahn in the SF IndieFest opening night film, 'LaRoy,' playing Feb...
© » ART & OBJECT
Art & Object Marketplace: A New Way to Buy Art Online | Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...
Other works by: » Pratchaya Phinthong
» see more
© » KADIST
Pratchaya Phinthong
2018Untitled (Ring) consists of two prominent elements contained in water filled glass sphere...
© » KADIST
Pratchaya Phinthong
2007In order to make If I dig a very deep hole (2007) the artist looked for the extreme geographical opposite of Paris when drawing a straight line throughout the globe...
© » KADIST
Pratchaya Phinthong
Phinthong made four photographs depicting fragments of meteorites of which the faces have been polished to reflect the sky...
© » KADIST
Pratchaya Phinthong
2009Phinthong made four photographs depicting fragments of meteorites of which the faces have been polished to reflect the sky...
Related artist(s) to: Pratchaya Phinthong » Pierre Bal-Blanc, » Roman Ondák, » Ceal Floyer, » Christodoulos Panayiotou, » Gianni Pettena, » Hans Schabus, » Maryam Jafri, » Raqs Media Collective, » Robert Breer, » Sanja Iveković
» see more
© » KADIST
Roman Ondak
2003This work needs to be considered in relation to one of his performances during which people were made to queue in front of the Kunsthalle of Frankfurt in 2003 (Tate Collection)...
© » KADIST
Ceal Floyer
2007NO POSITIONS AVAILABLE is composed of panels covering the entire wall of the gallery exemplifying one of the tendencies of the artist...
© » KADIST
Roman Ondak
2003As the caption purposely admits, these drawings were made by friends of Ondák’s at home in Slovakia asked to interpret places he has journeyed to...
Related works found in the same semantic group
» see more
© » KADIST
Tanatchai Bandasak
2019Central Region by Tanatchai Bandasak is a meditation on materiality and time-based media centres on the mysterious, prehistoric ‘standing stones’ of Hintang in Northern Laos: little-studied megaliths which have survived thousands of years of political change and the cataclysmic carpet-bombing of Laos by the United States during the Cold War...
© » KADIST
Vandy Rattana
2009Vandy Rattana’s Bomb Ponds series was made following a transformative encounter with the craters left over from 2,756,941 tons of bombs dropped by U...
© » KADIST
Bady Dalloul
2015Bady Dalloul’s Scrapbook is a 48 minute video beginning from his birth, tracing major global events of the 20 th century, including the beginning and current Occupation and colonization of Palestine, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, assassination of family members and the Syrian diaspora...
© » KADIST
Dennis Adams
2004The video Make down is a 34 minute sequence shot that shows the artist removing make-up in front of a mirror...