Some Body Else
Is an immersive installation consisting of 16 Agar(red algae) sheets stretched on 16 steel frames, a 38 min soundtrack and light sequence played in a loop. Dimensions variable. Image credit: Ove Kvavik.
This work was commissioned by and shown at the Munch Museum
"This is a story about different women … It is part ode, part meditation, part exorcism’
The soundtrack in Some Body Else is a combination of abstract human sounds and sounds from various real events. These episodes build up a bank of experience that the body remembers, even when it’s apparently deleted from the memory.
This work was commissioned by and shown at the Munch Museum
"This is a story about different women … It is part ode, part meditation, part exorcism’
The soundtrack in Some Body Else is a combination of abstract human sounds and sounds from various real events. These episodes build up a bank of experience that the body remembers, even when it’s apparently deleted from the memory.
Wanthiang focuses on methods the body uses to regulate emotions, and explores how breathing exercises and meditation can bring forth such memories in ways that can allow for exorcism – and empathy. The exhibition space has two different atmospheres, created by sculptures dressed in colored agar – a substance produced from algae found in the Indian Ocean – and pre-programmed lights, which provoke different levels of stress and calm in the audience.
Building on her research into the effects of trauma, Wanthiang likens the feeling of her installation to entering a body. She is interested in how physical sensations transmit from one body to another without being expressed or contained by language. In that sense, the skin is not a boundary to the world but a membrane that communicates with it.
This is the second edition of SOLO OSLO, a series of solo exhibitions presented in collaboration with Talent Norge and Canica. In the related mediation project, Frida Rusnak has worked with people with visual impairments. Here she investigates how art can become more accessible to the blind and partially sighted. In collaboration with the youth department of the Norwegian Association of the Blind, she worked to identify challenges and find solutions to make the exhibition more accessible.
Essay about Apichaya Wanthiang's work written by curator Tominga O'Donnell:
- Link to text (English)
- Link to text (Norweigan)
Some Body Else team:
Artist: Apichaya (Piya) Wanthiang
Light and sound programming: Sindre Sørensen
Sound: Tolga Balcı
Consultant on trauma related psychotherapy: Kolbjørn Vårdal
Sound recording: Therese Næss Diesen
Artist assistant and agar-sheets development: Jasmine Christensson
Production assistant: Markus Moestue
Steel construction: Kampen Mek
Prodution support: NOTAM
Munch Project team:
Curator: Tominga O’Donnell
Concept developer: Tove Aadland Sørvåg
Project Manager: Kine Lillestrøm
Text Editor: Tora Døskeland
Registrar: Tine Schmidt Haislund
Conservator: Mie Murstad
Head of Marketing: Tone Brunner
Technical Producer: Benny Lund
Exhibiton Technician: Thomas Kalvatn Egset
Lighting Design: Tara Fox
AV technician: Richard Alexandersson
DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE
Exhibition Architect: Kolab Arkitekter
This project is funded by Talent Norge and Canica AS