Another Sound
by Arnont Nongyao with Khvay Loeung
17 Jan – 30 Mar 2018
In English with Khmer translation
Sa Sa Art Projects
Another Sound is Phnom Penh’s first solo exhibition by Chiang Mai-based artist Arnont Nongyao. It is also the first time that Arnont exhibits with guest collaborator Khvay Loeung, a sound inventor from Phnom Penh. The project stems from Arnont’s curiosity to connect and continue a conversation with Loeung who he first met in 2015 during his residency with Sa Sa Art Projects.
The exhibition presents moving images, sound and photographs exploring an experimental approach to communications and a concept of life passing-on through sonic and visual mediations. At the centre of the exhibition space is a video of two moving images projected on top of each other. One layer of the videos interweaves two parallel worlds of Khvay Leung as an Ajar at funeral services and as a sound inventor in this bedroom/studio. At the funerals, Loeung works at a mediator of the ceremony facilitating between monks, laypeople and the dead. He sets up and controls his sound system, chants, and ensures the event is equipped with music and songs needed. At home in his bedroom, the audience sees where and how his sound system is made: electronic parts crowd the walls and the floor as Loeung and Arnont test their equipment and make sound together. Meanwhile, another layer of the videos is a live projection of the interior of Loeung’s homemade amplifier. It is installed on a part of the floor which is cracked, exposing the concrete underneath the tiles integrated into the work.
The exposed amplifier proposes an opening into the interior of the body which is being examined through the interrogation of the camera. Its noise, which is produced through the interruption of various signals, is projected out through a repurposed speaker. The amplifier and its extension of sound and moving image together with the videos and photograph signposts on the walls, all perform like an interior of an amplifier-room, or, according to Arnont, act like a kind of alphabet. The alphabet, however, in this case cannot be deciphered, but can only be felt and sensed. Because of the communication barrier between the two artists—who do not share a common language—the presented work is not only a result of their collaboration but in fact also the very method of their collaboration. They attempt to achieve a mutual understanding through a sonic experimentation: through another sound language.
The exhibition brings to bear the honesty of material conditions as a form of active agent. The experimentation of materiality, as well as the use of sound derived from physical matters, is mirrored in both practices of Anont and Loeung. While, for Anont, the used, the error and the broken are sources for inspiration of new innovation, for Loeung, the very media used for mediating death-rebirth of funerals are the source for continued reinvention.
About the artists
Arnont Nongyao (b. 1979, Bangkok) lives and works in Chiang Mai. He graduated in Painting from Chiang Mai University but became interested in sound and moving images. His practice centres on experimentation with vibrations that are derived from humans, organisms, things, and social forms. His works usually result in performance or installation, often in site-specific or public spaces. Arnont has presented works widely at various exhibition and festival platforms locally and internationally, including at The Asian Meeting Festival 2017, Japan; AVATAR’s Bangkok-Quebec Exchange Program, Canada, 2016; and the 16th Media Art Biennale WRO 2015, Wroclaw, Poland. He has undertaken some art residencies including at BACC and AVATAR, Bangkok and Quebec respectively, as part of Bangkok-Quebec Exchange Program 2016; at Koganecho Bazaar, Yokohama, Japan, 2015; and at Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh, 2015. Arnont is Co-Director of Chiang Mai Collective (CMC), an open network of innovative sound artists and practitioners in Chiang Mai.
Khvay Loeung (b. 1940, Svay Rieng) is a sound specialist and inventor. He is also an Ajar for funeral ceremonies. With a strong interest in electronics, Loeung self-teaches and experiments with sound creation. He creates and modifies DIY sound equipment for his work at the funerals where he performs both as a mediator and supplier and controller of sound system. He continuously reinvents his sound system including amplifiers and speakers.
Public Programs
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Lecture: Structural/Materialist Film in Contemporary Thai Moving Image by Pathompong Manakitsomboon
Saturday, 20 Jan 2018, 6:00–7:30 pm
In English with Khmer translation -
Collective Media Spaces: Listening from the Archive Cambodian National Radio Selections 1971 & 1984
Wednesday, 7 February 2018, from 6:00 to 7:30 pm
In English with Khmer translation
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Screening “Singapore GaGa (2005)” and conversation with film director Tan Pin Pin
Friday, 2 March, 2018, 6:00pm
55 minutes in English with English subtitles, followed by a talk with Tan Pin Pin
In English and Khmer.