METHYLENE BLUE
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METHYLENE BLUE 2020 / live performance / sound design by Liew Niyomkarn / moving image by Chulayarnnon Siriphol / voice by Prontip Mankhong, Liew Niyomkarn and Chulayarnnon Siriphol METHYLENE BLUE (2020) is a sonic and moving image collaboration between Liew Niyomkarn and Chulayarnnon Siriphol, commissioned by Sofia Lemos, for the multi-platform research programme SONIC CONTINUUM. Borrowing from the language of cosmetics advertisement, mass media and Thai soap opera, the work addresses questions around voice and speech in the context of the recent mobilisations in Bangkok. Using sound synthesis, Niyomkarn contrasts melodic parallels between the Thai anthem and the popular song 'Golden Land’ with dialogues and conversations ripped from and recorded in global protest events. Drawing on these sonic granularities, Chulayarnnon folds digital noise into an otherwise common manifestation of a capitalised gendered division of affects, intimacy and politics in contemporary Thailand. Washed over by a deep blue tint reminiscent of other monochrome blues ubiquitous in Western art history, Methylene Blue complicates generational viewpoints, temporalities of resistance, and commands of complicity and concealment as demands for transformation reverberate more loudly across the streets of Bangkok.
