'ASYLUM SEEKER: THE POND AND THE FIREFLIES' An Installation Exhibition by PRAPAT JIWARANGSAN

Having gained a privileged outsider-insider view on the political instability in his country, Jiwarangsan left Thailand and returned to it with disappointed expectations: the social and political unrest, reinforced by the 2014 military coup, has not eased the ongoing impasse between the royalist and the left, rather increasing the contentious political discourse and general malaise in the country. It is in this context that the multi media solo exhibition Asylum Seeker The Pond and the Fireflies can be framed. Encompassing a variety of works created during Jiwarangsan’s staying in Chiang Mai, Asylum Seeker is a cry for change, personal rather than collective, and a moment to pause and reflect on the essence and meaning of one’s identity. By engaging in a painful quest to unravel the extent—historical, political and social—of his Thai identity, Jiwarangsan simultaneously looks to the “nebulous” identities of those people, asylum seekers from neighboring countries, that silently inhabit the surroundings of a pond, a stagnant reservoir located at the perimeter of the artist’s house in Chiang Mai, hence “the Pond and the Fireflies”.