the night laid a hundred eyes on my skin
Apichaya Wanthiang
13th July - 8th September 2024

Our house was attacked at night, by costumed men on horses, carrying spears. My family ran to the back of the house to a nearby canal, and hid under a bridge. We all huddled together.
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On one occasion I was bitten by a tiny rattle snake. Every day in order to appease the spirits and to ask for healing, I would bring small food offerings to a wild betel plant, where a good spirit lives.
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On another occasion sneaking from behind adult shoulders, I saw the buffalo’s intestines spread out on a checkered piece of textile. An old man was reading my aunt’s fortune in them.

When I asked my grandmother about these separate yet solid recollections, she shook with laughter. Your imagination ran wild, none of this happened, she chuckled.
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When I asked my close cousin whether she remembers, she nodded no and tells me that my mind has kneaded separate events into one. We only remember what feels important to us, she offers.
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Does it matters that things didn’t happen as I recall? I’m surely still shaped by this strange amalgamation of images, stories and ideas. They are close and concrete, they have angles and textures,  I can wield worlds from them.

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In darkness, we become much more dependent on information from our entire body. At night, our sense of vision loses its primacy, and other senses, such as hearing, touch, and proprioception, play a more critical role. We rely on these heightened senses to navigate and understand our surroundings. This shift in sensory reliance makes us more attuned to subtle sounds and physical sensations, enhancing our overall sensory awareness and perception in low-light conditions.

Wanthiang’s approach to creating her installation emphasises immediacy and a deep tuning into our bodies, activating dormant information and stimulating the viewers' imaginations. She believes that thoughts are more active when sharpness of vision is suppressed, allowing for an absent-minded and unfocused gaze.

The activities depicted in her video filmed in a village in North-East Thailand rely on a cyclical and embodied knowledge of a terrain. Instead of "making work about" something, her work triggers and plays with textures and rhythm. A familial bond allows her to be present without disrupting day-to-day activities while filming. In the video, there is a focus on activities and bodies, not faces. The artist does not want to portray or speak on behalf of the subjects, but rather through her work stay close and speak in proximity.

Light both reveals and simultaneously erases and frames what is seen. The light in the exhibition guides the viewers' bodies to follow the direction of the subject’s gaze without revealing the subject's perspective. Village life offers little in terms of book knowledge but is full with embodied practices. Wanthiang's work centres around these embodied practices, inviting the viewer to immerse themselves in it.

The paintings are characterised by darkness, using light as a motive to obstruct sight. Meanwhile, the video utilises a dispersed spatialisation technique enhanced by translucent net materials. This exhibition prioritises sensory experience over narrative structure. While paintings and video traditionally rely heavily on visual perception, the imagery crafted for this exhibition aims to engages all the senses, activating what seems to be peripheral directly.

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Apichaya Wanthiang (B. 1987, Bangkok, Thailand) holds a BA from Sint-Lukas, Brussels and an MA in Fine Arts from Bergen Academy of Art and Design (KHiB). Piya constructs environments in order to study how they influence our perceptions, behaviors and interactions. She works mainly with painting and installations comprising light, sound and text. Piya has exhibited widely in Norway. She’s had solo exhibitions at the Munch Museum, Kristiansand Kunsthall and UKS. She has worked part time as Assistant Professor at Trondheim Academy of Fine Art and the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design (KMD) in Bergen. She has been on the board of the Norwegian Painters Association (LNM) and of The Young Artists’ Society (UKS). She is currently based in Oslo, Norway.


This exhibition is kindly supported by