Seoidin at The Land Foundation, Thailand

For Publication in The Land Project Book

2011-08-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

Sign off

2008-10-14T03:06:00.000-07:00

Interesting times with an unsustainable world wide economic system crashing, I am currently reading about the fall out in the art market which has been so much part of that Capitalist System, Read this interesting piece in the Financial Times : Artful practitioners of a confidence trick By Luke Johnson.

Does this mean a chance for a new thinking to emerge that is based on a different set of values? More in tune to compassion and nature and others? We'll have to wait and see I guess.

I have been back in Dublin now for 2 weeks and am settling back into my life here with a busy schedule ahead. I have a residency starting in airfield trust in November http://www.airfield.ie/arts_page.htm.
My collaborative project with South African artist Ralph Borland 'Tac tic" (www.tacticproject.blogspot.com) has an incubation period in Dublin's The Lab' art space and I have an exhibition with "Trespass" (www.trespass-trespass.blogspot.com) here in Dublin in February 2009.
Laters. Seoidin x

Bangkok

2008-10-10T01:11:00.000-07:00

"จากที่นาสู่สยามสแควร์ " โดย ส่วนหนึ่งของศิลปินที่ร่วมใช้ชี

วิตร่วมกันในโครงการหนึ่งปีรุ่นที่ 2 ณ มูลนิธิที่นา, เชียงใหม่
เปิดวัน ศุกร์ 17 ตุลาคม 2551, 19 น. - 22 น. ที่ไวท์สเปซ แกลเลอรี่ สยามสแควร์
การแสดงงานกลุ่มศิลปินไทยและศิลปินต่างชาติที่เคยร่วมโครงการหนึ่งปี รุ่นที่ 2 พำนักอาศัยร่วมกันอยู่ในพื้นที่ของมูลนิธิที่นา งานแสดง "จากที่นาสู่สยามสแควร์" เป็นการนำเสนอและเปิดมุมมองที่แตกต่างของกลุ่ม 11 ศิลปิน ซึ่งได้รับแรงบันดาลใจจากผืนที่นา ศิลปินแต่ละท่านได้ค้นหาความสัมพันธ์กันระหว่างผืนที่นากับสิ่งที่สะท้อนให้เห็นชุมชมเมืองอย่าง "สยามแสควร์"
นิทรรศการครั้งนี้เป็นการนำเสนอมุมมองที่แตกต่างกันของแต่ละศิลปินที่ได้รับแรงบัลดาลใจจากการเข้าร่วมโครงการ การตั้งคำถามเกี่ยวกับที่นาและความเชื่อมโยงกับสยาม แสควร์ผลงานของศิลปิน ถูกสะท้อนและถ่ายทอดออกมาเป็นผลงานที่หลากหลาย ตั้งแต่ งานภาพถ่าย งานวิดีโอ และงานจัดวาง ไปจนถึง งานที่ถ่ายทอดออกมาทางความคิด หนังสือ และเสียงเพลง

"FROM THE LAND TO SIAM SQAURE"by part of One Year Project Residency Program The Land Foundation's Artists One Year Project 2 at the Land Foundation
Opening Friday 17th October 2008, 7-10 pm at Whitespace gallery Siam Square

An exhibition of both Thai and International artists participating in the One-Year Project 2 residency program at the land foundation. From
the land to Siam Square explores the varied perspectives of 11 visual artists inspired by the land. Each artist investigates how the
ethos of the land relates to the urbanization of Siam Square. This common thread weaves throughout this multidisciplinary exhibition
comprised of a variety of works from photographs, videos, and installations to conceptual works, books and sound.

1.Alexander F.Wang (U.S.A.)
2.Rashanna Rashied Walker (U.S.A)
3.Panomporn Choosak (Thailand)
4.Ulrika Jansson (Sweden)
5.Seoidin O'Sullivan (Ireland)
6.Komol Kongcharoen (Thailand)
7.Pitt Martliam (Thailand)
8.Aoife Desmond (Ireland)
9.Sorasak Seangow (Thailand)
10.Marius Notvik (Norway)
11.David Doyle (Australia)

WHITESPACE GALLERY
Room #260, 2nd Floor, Lido Bldg.
Siam Square Soi 3, Rama 1 Rd.
Pathumwan, Bkk 10330. Thailand

Gallery Hours
tu we th fr 13:00-19:00
sa su 11:30-20:00
or by appointment

for more info pls contact
T +66(0) 2252 2900 EXT 315
E gallery@whitesp-ce.com

"Tools of The Trade" at Minimal Gallery, Chaing Mai

2008-09-09T05:09:00.000-07:00

We, the One Year Project 2 Participants at The Land Foun dation are all busy preparing for a show opening on Tuesday evening at Minimal Gallery in Chaing Mai. Irish artist Aoife Desmond and myself are going to be presenting new work from our collaborative project 'Trespass'. Trespass investigates the different issues around land use and ownership in Urban environments through lens based documentation and performative actions. Together we map and intervene in disused urban space that through neglect has become wilderness. Through 'Trespass' we research and reveal the delicate balance between nature and the the built environments of cities.

So better get back to art making now . . tick tock tick tock.

Here are some images of Trespass work at Minimal:
http://picasaweb.google.co m/seoidin/TrespassAtMinimalGalleryChaingMa

Mobile Rice Seed Bank Project

2008-09-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

Mobile Rice Seed Bank Project Proposal

Artists: Seoidin O'Sullivan and Suwan Laimanee

Proposal: We propose to build 'A Mobile Rice Seed Bank' that will be parked at 'The Land'. This Mobile Seed Bank will be able to be cycled to nearby farms and villages in and around 'The Land.' It will act as a point of information on the necessity of 'seed saving'. It will provide information on the different seed varieties and also act as a distribution point for genetic rice seed varieties initially (This can later include other varities of food and vegetable seed).
It is also a point at which people can seed swap, it will be an interactive community installation to encourage the sharing of local rice seed varieties. It is about returning variety conservation to communities to strengthen the work of seed saving and protection and to help to return seed banks to their original purpose. 'being that of a back up for existing in situ conservation by farmers' (www.greennet.or)

Rice is the staple food for a large part of the world's population. The Thai government lead the way in Asia with its decision to stop field trials of GM crops in 2001. The agriculture ministry was ordered to withdraw approval for the trials to protect farmers, biodiversity and the environment from genetic pollution.'(the guardian, wednesday april 18, 2001) This year (2008) has seen an increase in the price of Rice due the current fuel crisis. Rice prices are expected to continue to increase. This project offers a small solution for future direction for local farmers. Rice demand recently outstripped supply. With the increase in urbanisation has come an increase in the demand for meat production, rice fields are being converted into places for live stock. There is a large knock on effect ocurring. Severe weather across Asia has also damaged production.With this project we wish to offer an alternative. This project encourages the sharing of resources and information, it is also about localisation . The economic and social impacts of this food crisis are having an impact on the livelihoods of poor farmers and communities.

References:

a. Temescal Seed Swap

b. Nils Norman, 1999. "The Gerard Winstanley Radical Gardening Space Reclamation Mobile Field Center and Weather Station Prototype (NYC Chapter)

c. Mobile service vehicles in Chaing Mai, September 2008.

Artist Statement on Climate Change

2008-09-02T20:19:00.000-07:00

Artist Statement on Climate Change for The Land Foundation: Seoidin O'Sullivan

Climate Change

Climate Change is the human race finally comprehending the impact our modern livelihoods and lifestyles are having on our natural environment. It is an opportunity for a large, collective realisation that some of our modern life choices and ways of living have a destructive effect on ourselves, our communities, other countries(usually poorer nations suffer the worst health consequences) and our planet. This knowing is not new. Many wise people have warned us about this over the last 100 years or more(see Silent Spring, Rachel Carson and The One Straw Revolution,Masanobu Fukuoka), but unfortunately we did not listen. Climate change is the environmental crisis reaching such a logger-head that the evidence can no longer be hidden or the truth denied. Averting or even slowing down Climate Change may seem like a daunting task, but many inspiring small-scale local projects all over the world give evidence that other ways of living and being are indeed possible. In order to address Climate Change we need to make lasting connections between the political, environmental, socio-economic and cultural facets of our lives. We need to comprehend that we all have a shared responsibility to bring about the necessary changes so that together we can set a new direction towards a more sustainable planet that works with and has a deep respect for nature.

Climate Change is a cultural as well as an environmental challenge. The Arts community globally (like so many other professional and business industries) has been very slow to even acknowledge climate change. Through cross disciplinary dialogues and the sharing of information and knowledge, we have the opportunity to creatively address and discover how this challenge can be met with solutions that will make a better world possible now and for the future.

Samuel Yates

2008-09-02T01:43:00.004-07:00

Artist Samuel Yates is  traveling through Thailand with his wife, Michelle. Yin and Aof from 'The Land Foundation' take them to see 'The Land' on Thursday, I travel with them. It is interesting to call to 'The Land' as an art tourist, we catch a red taxi and spend an hour out there and then drive back. Aiwa, the care taker of The Land has the buffalo in one of the ponds, they look cool and content. Aof and Yin give Samuel and Michelle  a tour of 'The Land' and  Aiwa cuts down some coconuts  that he prepares for us to drink.  I am enjoying drinking fresh coconuts, my first time having one was when I arrived at our accommodation in Chaing Mai. My neighbour prepared one for me, delicious. I have been drinking them practically every second day since.

That evening Samuel Yates gives 'The Land Foundation' and friends a talk about his art practice. We all meet in Kamin's (artist and co-founder of 'The Land') studio where a large easel sits on 2 paint tins and will be the projector screen for the evening. Samuel lives in San Francisco, California and recently finished his studies in Colombia University where he was taught by Rirkrit Tiravanija. His talk is really engaging and his art practice interesting. He initially studied english literature to a degree level and then went on to study a Masters in Fine Art. He talks us through his work made over the last 12 years. Take a look at his website if you want a gander at his work: www.samuelyates.com

Vipassana Meditation course.

2008-08-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

As part of The Land Foundations programme every participant is required to take a Vipassana meditation course. Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. It was taught in India more than 2500 years ago as a universal remedy for universal ills, i.e., an Art of Livi ng. The course we will be doing is run by Goenka (via video tapes and c.d's). This meditation course involves 10days of silence. Meditation begins at 4.30 in the morning and finishes at 9pm at night with breakfast, lunch and tea breaks.

I am familiar with meditation practices. 10 years ago I took a pranayama (breathing) art of living course in Durban, South Africa and did it again in Dublin 2 years ago. I have also been practicing Iyengar yoga over the last 11 years and have been practicing Aikido ( A Japanese martial art) over the last 5 years which includes zen meditation practice. I think it is great to see a meditation course included in an artistic programme. I have received rich benefit from meditation practice over the last 10 years. On Wednesday Aoife and I travel to Phitts . . The course is full. It is 80 percent Thai participants. I have bought a Chi-Gung book by Daniel Read that I read on the 6 hour bus journey to the meditation centre.

When we arrive I hand over all writing, reading, valuables and wallet. Men and woman are separated to allow for less distraction. The silence starts at 7pm. We meet in The great hall which is a large hall with meditation cushions in rows, we are each designated a number/ cushion, mine is no.35. I 'm going to get to know this cushion very well over the next few days. We are asked to put aside all forms of previous meditation practice by Goenka via tape and to concentrate simply on his instruction and technique over the next 10 days. We are initially told to watch our breathe and concentrate on the inner passages of our nose to feel the breathe there. We do this practice for 4 and a half days. Watching the breathe, watching our thoughts and where they go and bringing them back to the breathe in order to be present. This is a mind training.

We so often get pulled away by what is going on in our thoughts and we create deep passages for our synapses when we concentrate and give precedence to certain thoughts. This is what leads us to depression, obsession, bad self image and anxiety. When you sit still you can literally hear yourself think. You see how you create your habits and the realisation develops that it is ultimately up to you with what you want to concentrate your life energies and thinking on. 'Where your mind goes your energy goes', I remember being told in a yoga class.Where your mind goes your body often follows mostly in a space of unawareness, and often when we get caught in these emotional negative jams we think 'poor me' but if we were to watch our thought we would see that we have lead ourselves to this place. Sitting for four days a deeper and deeper unlayering will begin to happen, it's a waking up to oneself. This of course isn't easy, you literally confront your demons and the lovely sweet person you imagine you are reveals its great weakness and folly. Then back to the breathe, always attempting to be present and aware so you don't get dragged into that whirl pool of negativity.

All good so far. I am looking forward to the time out and know that it is going to be a challenge confronting the truth of myself. When Goenka 's voice comes over the tape I decide I like it . . I think positively about it and when he chants at the end of the meditation session I think that he sounds like something John Kelly would play. (John Kelly is one of my favourite Irish radio D.J's) He sounds like some smoking Blues singer that's being hanging out in a lot of bars drinking whiskey.

The following morning at 4.30 am we do an hour and a half of meditation and then Goenka comes over the loud speaker once more singing his chants. But this morning I find his voice really annoying, he can't sing i think. I wonder why he didn't get someone with an angelic voice to chant for him, maybe this smoking blues jazz voice doest suit a 6am morning? I have no idea what he is saying, we haven't been told the meaning of the lyrics. Then I become afraid of being brainwashed by some new guru. I think about Germany and the Nazi's and their use of radio and voice to get their message across. They managed to Brain wash a whole nation, and those people believed they were in the right and that they were doing it for the greater good. Back to the breathe, positivity . . its really difficult this morning. The chanting goes on for ages and ages and ages . . .
After a day of watching my thoughts and bringing them back to my breathe on the second day I atomise during one of the meditation sessions. I am present and awake in the room. I can hear Goenka on the tape saying "feel the area between your upper lip and nostril". But my body has gone into some altered state. I think 'I 'd feel my nose if I could but at the moment. . I have no nose . . I'm literally blissed out'. It's better than any orgasm (sorry present and past boyfriends). The next thing that happens is various colours appear. (It's a little like the sauna in the Guinness swimming pool that I go to in Dublin. The sauna has a lamp that changes colour, probably designed as a mood improver? it flashes differnt colours and goes through the rainbow spectrum.) Each colour during the meditation creates a certain mood and feeling, it holds a certain vibration. I figure my different chakras are waking and that I must be working on some subtle level . It definitely doesn't feel like a dream state I am aware of being on cushion no 35 and I can here Goenka saying ' start again start again go back to the breathe. I disobey though . .I decide to sit with this state which feels incredibly healing and peaceful, and not stay with focusing on my physical upper lip ( which to be honest I have become bored with. . 20 hours of upper lip concentration over 2 days!). Toward the end of the hour and a half I move back to my physical body. I am sitting in a good posture, there is no pain in my legs and I feel incredibly content. We then go for lunch . We still have another 6 hours of sitting meditation to do this afternoon and evening. Followed by another 8 days of twelve hour meditation.

Day 3 sees my legs feeling really uncomfortable I keep going because we are told in the video tapes that we will be moving to another technique soon, this is like a dangling carrot. I watch my breathe and become aware of the different directions my mind drifts off in. Like a fishing line I try to pull them back to myself, to move back to my breathe and the present moment.

Can one get meditation Over Dose? I'm feeling a little O. D' ed on meditation. What shouldn't be an effort is feeling like a massive effort. Effortless effort effortless effort I keep telling myself.

On the morning of Day 4 I assume we will be starting the new technique. But we don't, I concentrate on my breathe and watch my thoughts. My legs are aching and my butt is sore. I feel like my knees are going to be wrecked from sitting in the lotus position. The Thai participants who have been sitting on the floor crossed legged since they were like 2years old do not seem to be having as hard a time as us Europeans, they sit comfortably, but I have spent most of my years on a chair, my legs are not nearly as flexible and this is pain!

We then begin the new technique that evening. (to be cont . . . when i get round to it)

January 31st 2008. . .(story continued)

The new technique is moving awareness all over the body. We start at the top of our heads and move all around the body, concentrating on our skin. It is nice to be doing something different. I am really struggling with sitting though. We have been told to stay in one position for the hour ( we then get a 10 minute break) then there is another hour. My legs are aching and I find it excruciating to sit in one posture for so long and not shift to a new position. I try to take my mind off the pain and just concentrate on moving around my body. I become more observant of the goenka volunteers and followers, I watch them while around the place dutifully doing there duties. I have such an element of criticality in me, I observe everything, going on around. Is this surrendering to duty beautiful? It does not feel it, it feels formalistic. I think about the bell calling us to meditate but most of all the devotion around Goenka, the teacher.
Am I looking for ways out? is this my own laziness? not being able to sit and suffer?
I just keep wondering what else do I want to see or know and what else do I want revealed? I have another 6 full days of being here and meditation. Sshh mind! be still! be present! More thoughts creating more thoughts.

Day 5: Same routine again, shower at 4am meditation until 6am, breakfast, a break, then meditation sessions, then lunch. My legs are really killing me, I practice being present. I feel like I have meditation OD. Too much meditation. Too much sitting still!
I meet the instructors to ask them about my sitting and to explain the pains in my legs. This does not feel healthy. No yoga to stretch them out, not much space to walk. 'Just sit the pain will pass, concentrate on the movement around the body' We are leaning to see the truth, the essence ' it is a process of de-conditioning. Instead of imposing anything on the mind, it automatically removes unwholesome qualities so that only wholesome, positive ones remain. By eliminating negativities, it uncovers the positivity which is the basic nature of a pure mind.' goenka has said.

I start thinking of my yoga and aikido practice, how much I enjoy the movement in these practices, swimming and running. Will I be doing myself damage here sitting like this.? That afternoon I also find it hard to be present I see frogs and creatures, I am exhausted from the shear force of concentration. I am feeling slightly unhinged. Instead of present I feel exhausted and I don't want to sit for any longer. By dinner time I have had enough. I want to stop, I want to leave. I approach the instructors and tell them this. They advice me to try the evening practice and that I can leave in the morning if I still feel the same way. I agree to give it another chance.

I go to the evening session. I give the meditation my full presence. No I most definitely want to go. That morning I pack my bags and head back to Chaing Mai. I feel no regrets about leaving. I do feel a slight worry for a second that I might be giving up or weak? . . but that thought passes very quickly. No I have had enough, I am grateful for the experience and the second day was incredibly healing. It was wonderful to experience 5 days of silence. I came to see my thought patterns, I witnessed things I cling to, my negative thinking, my thought addictions.

When I get back to Chaing Mai I google "Goenka", this is his most recent project:'The Global Pagoda' Building the largest meditation centre in the world in praise of The Buddha. It is meant to last 2000 years, with the Buddhas relics underneath, given over by the sri lankan prime minister. I have a thought: Buddha achieved enlightenment under a tree, why do we (man) always feel the need to erect some massive monument, be it a pyramid, a cathedral . . structures? Then back to the present moment, the breathe, back to communicating, making decisions, experiencing sensation, back to my life.

Suwan's House

2008-08-30T11:46:00.001-07:00

I travel to Suwan Laimanee's house on Sunday with Alex, Aoife and Aom. On the way we pick up food from a local market. We go swimming in his self made 20m pool and have a look at the Bamboo house that he has built. It is a really impressive structure. Suwan wants to live as sustainably as possible, creating as little impact on the natural environment. As well as being his home he refers to the bamboo house as his art work/ project. The house structure is made from Bamboo that can be replaced by the bamboo that is growing on his land when needs be. Suwan traded the soil that was dug from the swimming pool for the labor of digging the hole. A local miner came round with his digger dumper to make the swimming pool. The water is lovely and cool. It's an azure blue and because of it's high mineral content has no bugs or plants in it, it's a natural spa (no chlorine needed either!).

Friday night

2008-08-17T12:33:00.001-07:00

We have a meeting and dinner at 'The Land' on Friday evening it's a beautiful full moon and fire flies dance across the landscape. There are loads of mosquito's to and I am constantly dousing myself with repellent. It's nice to have people here even if it's just for the evening, it feels more participatory. We discuss our upcoming projects for 'The Minimal Gallery' in Chaing Mai and 'The White Space' in Bangkok. The overseas participant's (4 of us: Alex, Rashanna, Aoife and myself stay the night and Alex's girlfriend Aom joins us). The Thai volunteers and participants leave later that evening-back to the big vibrant smoke that is Chaing Mai.

I sleep on the platform of Rirkrit's structure. In the middle of the night I wake up and scan the platform for snakes with my torch. I catch sight of a dark form to my right,(I decide to be brave and look there last). No snakes on the platform I then shine my torch onto the dark form it's a large frog that has somehow got inside my mosquito net. Thank god I have woken and seen it, if it had jumped on me during the night there would have been me entangled in my mosquito net moving wildly and no doubt screaming.

I gently lift my mosquito net and encourage the frog with the back end of my torch off the platform and into the pond 2m below. The next morning I'm up at 6am with the sunrise, I decide to head back for Chaing Mai on my bicycle before it gets too warm.

2nd trip to The Land

2008-08-16T22:46:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I cycle to 'The Land' from Chaing Mai, It takes me 2 hours. It's a lovely flat cycle with street vendors and small villages all along the way. Many people set up businesses just outside their homes selling vegetables and cooked produce. I arrive at The Land at 6.30 pm. Aoife had left for The Land earlier that morning and has a fire on and dinner cooking when I arrive, perfect timing. I start reading a book 'The Thai Herbal' about the practice of herbal medicine in Thailand. I sleep in the Star House.

'The eight-pointed star shaped residence platform is based on the hierarchical diagram designed in 1992-93 for the constitution of The Kingdoms of Elgaland- Vargaland (KREV), a conceptual art project by Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren . This diagram is a model for an alternative way to look on present day hierarchical structures and meant to serve as an equalizer, levelling out the gap between a ruler and a people.

As a one-room house it's meant to be a place for solitude and meditation as well as an open room inviting a potential guest. It can be closed off, partly open in any direction or completely open. One person can stay or two, maybe three.

There is no electricity but a solar cell energy source might be installed to activate a lap top computer or a1485kHz radio receiver. The 1485kHz frequency refers to the radio frequency that Friedrich Jürgenson (1903-1987), the pioneer of EVP (electronic voice phenomena), used when establishing communication with "the other side" . This house and the use of it are partly dedicated to his memory and his work.' www.thelandfoundation.org

Trespass Film Drama

2008-08-16T21:35:00.001-07:00

On Monday the 11 August Aoife and I decide to make some film work for our Trespass project. We have been looking at derelict and undeveloped sites around The Land office in Chaing Mai.We have noticed one of the sites has what looks like a squatter settlement on it. There is temporary corrugated steel housing that has been put up and it looks like 20 or more people (families) are living there. We are told that these homes belong to construction workers. The construction company hires the site to accommodate there workers while they are building in and around Chaing Mai. There is much development going on in Chaing Mai, new restaurants, Spa's and Businesses are popping up all over the place, Rashanna tells us that even in the last 6 months she has seen a lot of new structures emerging. Chaing Mai has a growing tourist industry that is fueling this development. Suwan who is a Thai artist comes with us to help us with translation. The people on the site are moving from the site, they give us permission to film and agree to talk to us. 11 minutes into the filming a truck pulls up to help to load the goods and housing materials, I assume it is a friend of the people living on the site and carry on with the filming. The next thing a very angry woman gets out of the truck and shouts at us in Thai and tries to grab the camera. Suwan explains that she is the owner of the construction company and says we are not allowed to film here. She wants us to hand over the tape we say we will not and begin to leave, she pursues us. She is talking wildly on the phone calling for back up. We walk quickly towards a shopping center where we hope to lose her. The next thing a large white vehicle pulls up in front of us and a man jumps out and starts photographing us with his phone. He moves to hit Suwan and wants us to hand over the tape. We keep walking and go to a police station that is based in the shopping center, both the man and woman (husband and wife we later learn) are so wild with anger that it is impossible to talk to them. In the police station both ourselves and the construction company tell our stories. We are forced to record over the 12 minutes of footage for the sake of peace. Suwan explains that the construction workers are Burmese migrants and that the construction company has hired the workers illegally and so felt threatened by the filming. The female owner of the company says that her workers had not given us permission to film them. We do not tell her that the workers had in fact as we realise that their jobs may be threatened. The migrants live in a very precarious position here in Chaing Mai, glad to have work no doubt but up for exploitation at the same time.

To Child Life Project in Maesai

2008-08-12T05:19:00.000-07:00

Tan who volunteer's for The Land took part in the first 'One Year Project', he tells me about a project he will be visiting in Maesai(the Burmese border)this weekend. I ask whether it would be possible to travel with him, he agrees. Aoife and I wake up early on Friday morning, Tan picks us up at 7am. His friend Joe a civil engineer is driving, on the way out of Chaing Mai we pick up Ayk, another friend of Tan's who is an organic farmer. Tan and his friends are working on a project in Maesai with a plan to build a sustainable housing project for Burmese child refugees. We stop at a mud house project on the way that they are thinking may be possible to replicate for the structures to be built next year.

On our journey we also stop at The White Temple, 'The chapel of Wat Rong Kun'. It is a really impressive opulent and magical looking structure. After lunch I take a walk around and then inside it. At the entrance is a no drinking sculpture red and scarily kitch (in a good way!). Inside there is a depiction of enlightenment with a monk in the lotus position meditating (which I keep looking at wonderin g if it is real or not?). with a mural behind the wax figure of a larger Buddha in cased in an even larger Buddha. The back wall has a large mural with Keanu Reeves from the Matrix, Pepsi cola bill boards, American taxi's, torpedo's and war planes all twisted in confusion, with death sculls scattered around. There is a clearer brighter world depicted above of nature and light. I like the mural a lot it's really post modern. When we get to Maesai we call to 'Child Life's' hostel and kitchen where we will be staying for the next few nights, we meet a few of the people involved and working with

the project. This hostel and kitchen are used as a place where the older children from the project stay and gain work experience. After dinner we walk up to the border which is 100m up the road, the streets are full of traders selling clothes, food and electronics.
In the morning Tan, Ayk, Aoife and I cross the border. On the way we meet street children begging for money, we are warned by the Child Life project leader to not support them and that it is not the children who receive the money but an adult who collects the earnings off of the kid's. Aoife has forgotten her passport but manages to get through with her staff university card, her white skin and 100 B (3euro). It is very different in Burma, the buildings are more dilapidated with counterfeit designer gear on sale everywhere. Tan buys a fake iPhone for 120euro that looks and works like the real thing. On the way back to Thailand Aoife breezes through without her passport whereas I with my passport spend 15 minutes filling in forms (go figure!).

That Afternoon we drive to the Child Life project. There are 150 Burmese children and teenagers between the ages of 6 to 16 living here. Many of them have been rescued from the streets and the child sex trade. There is one large room full of bunk beds for the younger kids. It has been raining for the last 2 day's and the place is quite muddy. Kid's are everywhere catching frogs, building mini dams in the mud, playing with a puppy, making jig saws and one child has built a clay sculpture of what looks like the orphanage with paddy fields and children the same size as houses(see picture). A new site has been bought to accommodate better facilities for the project. Tan and his friends are here to see what the current site and its structures look like and talk about ideas with people working for Child Life for the new structures and there surrounds.We also visit the new site.

Conversations on Art and Sustainability

2008-08-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

I spend the weekend hanging out with Suwan Laimanee, (Suwan Laimanee was the first artist who introduced massage as art in 1996 at the Biennale Florence, Italy. In 1997 Suwan's video art massage was introduced at Documenta X with Michelangelo Pistoletto's Progetto Arte.) We have long discussions on politics in Thailand, organic food, the evil Monsanto and art. We go to markets shop for bicycles and eat loads of good food. Aoife and I buy seeds to plant at The Land from Pun Pun (http://www.punpunthailand.org/) who have a vegetarian organic restaurant at a Buddhist temple in Chaing Mai. On Wednesday we have a meeting at 'The Land' office, the British consulate gives a presentation they would like The Land Foundation to get involved in a project that deals with air pollution in Chaing Mai. That evening we have a dinner at our (the one year participants) rented accommodation. Kamin has just arrived back from Melbourne where he did a presentation on The Land Foundation and had an exhibition of his work. He shows us images and describes a project that he visited in Melbourne called Ceres. CERES 'the Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies', is an internationally recognised model of a sustainable society located in Melbourne, Australia. We have a check in discussion on how we are all doing and what projects we are developing and working on. Ohm shows us pictures of her car that had been totaled by a buffalo. The rest of the week is spent working on Trespass.

Friday Presentation at Rirkrits house

2008-08-10T19:02:00.000-07:00

We travel back to Chaing Mai from 'The Land' today and walk over to Rirkrit's House in the evening from the office in town. It is about a 30 minute walk, Tom shows Aoife and I the way in a light drizzle of warm rain. We have been asked to prepare something to present on Trespass this evening. We have brought along a recently made DVD of our project. Rirkrit's home is in a wealthier more up and coming part of Chaing Mai, many of the houses in the area have big gates and look quite luxurious. We pass a village of what looks like a shack settlement, all corrugated iron housing on our way. (I am later told that these are not in fact squatters but construction workers usually Burmese illegal migrants, the company they work for gives them the land temporarily for settlement). We take off our shoes on entering his home. Rirkrit is not in Thailand this month, he has a busy schedule and the typical jet set art star life style. He is expected to be back in September to work on the art section of the One Year Project 2 . I have not met him. His friends Carl and Jan stay at his home, they are preparing for a show in Bangkok and are traveling with their gallery. His home is amazing. We walk into a courtyard with a tropical garden, bedrooms, an office, lounge and kitchen all have sliding doors opening onto the tropical garden. We walk on the raised wooden platform over to a white room, studio/exhibition space where people are gathered for the presentations. The side wall opens onto the garden where you can hear the monsoon rain bouncing off large tropical leaves. I choose a seat close to the garden so I can tune into that sound if I get bored during the presentations. His recently completed home is beautifully designed and tasteful. There must be serious money in art I think, social sculpture included. This world of art dealers and galleries is one I still don't understand, maybe I could ask Rirkrit to do a presentation for us One Year Participants revealing this world . Michael von Hausswolff a sound artist and Jan Hafstrom
a painter present to us One YearProject participants and friends of The Land . A really interesting project that Michael was involved in was this: http://www.elgaland-vargaland.org/. After dinner we present 'Trespass' and some of the other people attending show their practices. We catch a lift home with Aom who has done all the translating for the evening. We hear the next day that Aom hit a buffalo on her way home after dropping us back to the rented house just after midnight. Her car is totaled, the buffalo killed and she fortunately completely unscathed.

Froggers and Bird Shooters (31 July)

2008-08-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

I wake up on the platform of Rirkrit's structure and lift the mosquito net off me. Aoife, Rashanna and I do an hour of yoga and meditation. Alex and Ohm leave at midday back to Chiang Mai. It's another lazy day of lying around, snoozing and reading. It get really hot here during the day and one can hardly move, my busy must be doing something Dublin head is slowly melting in this heat. At around 8pm the dogs start barking. There are frog hunters in the paddy field's surrounding The Land. They wear headlamps and wadding boots, the light searching the landscape looks beautiful. I decide this will make a good film piece for Trespass. We spend the evening on the stoop of the kitchen with candle light, sipping tea and chatting. Tonight I decide to try and sleep in The Star House. Alex an American artist and one year participant has not had good experiences of staying at The Land he talks of ghosts. Rashanna says she has also had some feeling of presences so now sleeps above the kitchen. They both talk about what could have been here before and that it may now haunt the landscape. I tell them about a meditation tool that the Buddha taught his disciples who were afraid of ghosts when sleeping in a forest. I am still more afraid of snakes and I bang my feet on the ground when I walk over to The Starhouse hoping the vibration will scare them. I read 'The One Straw Revolution' by candle light, then I hear a gun shot followed by another. Rashanna had told us that there are bird hunters about so not to be afraid when we hear gunshots. I then hear someone climbing up the stairs of The Star House, having lived in South Africa I am slightly nervous. Phew it's Rashanna, she tells me she has a gut instinct that all is not well, she thinks there may be people on The Land. We stand on a corner of the Star House and flash a torch in the direction of the bamboo trees to where Rashanna thinks the people may be. We clearly see two figures with a gun pointed up into the bamboo tree, then a shot goes off. We flash the torch on and off hoping to scare them. It works and the two figures jump on a moped and leave. Real live Trespassers! We go over to Aiwa the caretakers house and wake him. He says not to worry everything is fine, I wonder if he has some agreement with the bird shooters.

The Land

2008-08-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday 29 July Rashanna, Aoife, Alex, Ohm and myself travel to The Land. Rashanna, Aoife and myself catch the local red taxi. The plot that The Land is on is smaller than I expected. There are 12 structures on the site: 1. 2x toilets, 2. 3 x showers, 3. Phillipe Parreno and Francois Roche: Battery House/electricity maker ( not working) 4. Markus Heinsdorff: A Bamboo viewing tower structure with chickens living below, 5. The communal house with kitchen below and a meeting room/library above, then the Living in/sleeping structures: 6. The Star House (Alex and Ohm settle here), 7. Rirkrit Tiravanija House: A fire below, a platform and a room upstairs, 8. Ajchariyasophon's House, 9. Asian Provision's Structure: which is like a large diving platform, 9. Tobias Rehberger, 10. Kamin's House for Aiwa the caretaker and his wife, 11. Somyot and Thaiwijit's House, light blue stage platform. Two day's later I stumble upon Mit-Jai-In's circle of tree's.

After a look around Aoife and Alex farm some mussels out of the pond. I work in the garden with Aiwa and his wife (I am involved in a community ga rd en project in Dublin). The vegetable garden is looking quite neglected, I pick some runner beans, chillies and basil. We cook dinner then move into The Star House to play cards. I sleep in the house that Rirkrit has built. The side walls on the platform don't exist any more. I am a little nervous going to sleep thinking about snakes and spiders; surely this is a real fear, I grew up in Durban South Africa which has a similar climate. I try to ignore this fear for tonight anyway. I am lulled to sleep by the sound of crickets mixed with Alex and Ohm chatting in The Star House.

Wednesday 30 July
I awake with the sunrise, then walk over to Mit's structure next door and do an hours meditation. While meditating Aiwa crosses The Land over to the buffalo and undoes the blue mosquito net surrounding the enclosure. . He then ties them up outside to feed them. I watch my thoughts, I watch my breathe. When I finish meditating I think about the role of Aiwa in this project ( afterwards because you are not supposed to be thinking thoughts when meditating :-) hhmmm! ). Aiwa is the care taker of The Land he works hard mostly around the Buffalo, every morning he is up with the sun which is 6 am and walks over to where the buffalo are kept to let them out of the enclosure.He has built the structure from wood and placed blue mosquito protection around a framewhere the buffalo are kept. He then feeds the buffalo four times during the day. At one point during the day he has to go and collect grass up river as well as move the buffalo to the pond so that they can take a dip to cool off. Come four o'clock Aiwa lights a fire near each of the buffalo to protect them from mosquito's. Then at around 6pm he moves the 2 buffalo back into the blue enclosure. The buffalo were brought to The Land to give fuel to Super Flex's Bio Gas Unit, which burst a couple of months ago. No one belonging to The Land knows how to fix it so Super Flex will be flying in at the beginning of September with a new orange bio gas unit. There were also plans to use the buffalo to generate electricity for Parreno and Roche's Battery House. This structure has never worked . Parreno made a film of the building here, which I saw recently at The Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, it was in a show of recent acquisitions by the museum. In the film the building glows in the space of The Land. electricity was brought to The Land in order to make it light up. The Buffalo were meant to pull on and turn a trelly that then stored up energy in a battery so that electricity would be generated but it has never worked.So for the moment the Buffalo have no function except for creating nice images for art magazines and giving Aiwa a lot of work.

I then walk over to the shower: this I feel is one of the most successful structures. It was built by the first set of One Year participants. I climb onto a bicycle and pump water for my shower that is ground water, rain water is also stored in the blue container. I am the only one up, I have some fruit and then walk into the village. People pass me on scooters on their way to work and a few trucks full of farm workers (migrants?) wave at me. People are surprised to see me, I am offered several lifts. There are many rice fields, people living locally do not seem poor, I judge this on the housing I see in the village. I wonder if the people working the fields own the land?

The rest of the day is fairly lazy. I pick up "One Straw Revolution" and begin to read it. It is about a Japanese farmer, Masanobu Fukuoka who after 30 years of developing a method now farms with little effort and close to nature's ways. The book was written in 1975 and covers all the issues on climate change and predicts our current fuel crisis and unsustainable lively hoods. In the afternoon Aoife, Alex and myself go for a swim in the canal to cool off. As we walk back to The Land a silver bus full pulls up full of Swedish and Thai curators. I run up to Rirkrit's house with my wet hair and put my bra's and underwear away ( I suppose I could have left it. . a photo of which might be in the next contemporary art magazine. . a Tracey Emin at The Land.) The group walk around The Land awkwardly. Most of the curators/artists are wearing the classic/typical art world black. I watch a woman try to cross the bamboo bridge to the toilets in her slip on heels. The group don't quite fit in here, they some how look comical. After half an hour of walking around the structures and taking photo's they then leave. I realise our role as participants here is also that of mediator, we are also spectacle part of the art work that is 'The Land' , we leave the art tourists feeling like intruders.
Michael von Hausloff then arrives with his gallery, son and friend, they have come to see and take pictures of The Star house. They lie around and chat with us in the cool shade and drink coconuts. We will see them on Friday evening for talks and presentations at Rirkrit's house in Chaing Mai.

The Land of Forum

2008-08-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday I attend The Land of Forum in Chaing Mai. 'Land of Forum is part of the One Year Project by the land foundation with the following scopes of learning: Self-knowledge through Vipassana Meditation, Natural Farming and Globalization, Media and Art. The talks and discussions will be given by experts in each of these fields and also highlight, art and culture in everyday life, farming, globalization and contemporary art in Thailand.' The Land provide us non Thai speakers with a translator. The theme of the talks this weekend is contemporary art in Thailand. I find the discussions and presentations engaging and fascinating. Themes of the talks were: 'Art and Society- Art only responds to people with money there should be something more we can do. ' 'Cultural Knowledge, Succession and Sustainable development: Lanna Wisdom' 'A History of Thai modern art. Is this illusion? ' . . . with a final thought that 'the artist is the thief who stole from the village' . I enjoyed the weekends mix of art, activism and sustainable knowledge systems some pertinent and challenging questions and issues were raised. A highlight for me was the Labour Sans Frontiers Project. This art project highlights the plight of migrant workers within Thailand. Female migrants make paper mache dolls called Kunjing representing migrants within Thailand. These large dolls travel the country to wherever they are invited they have attended conferences, bars and have even traveled to Singapore, London and Spain. The Kunjing have time to travel as they do not need to work to make a living and are free to cross borders as they do not need visa's or passports.

Arrival

2008-07-28T01:07:00.000-07:00

I applied to participate in The Land Foundation's One Year Project 2 fourteen months ago. I have been looking forward to the trip and am glad to have finally arrived. I am traveling with 'Trespass' a collaborative art project with Irish artist Aoife Desmond which we will be further developing over the next two months.

We arrive into Chiang Mai on Thursday the 24th of July 2008. We drop our bags off at the rented accommodation that we will be staying in for the weekend. Our Land Lady gets a coconut off a tree in the garden, splits it open and offers us a drink, such a lovely welcome. We then travel to The Land's office which is in the centre of Chaing Mai for a meeting. We meet the volunteers and some of the full time participants. We are given our first task to complete by the end of the month. It is a questionnaire on Culture, Art and Climate Change. Everyone talks about Climate Change and what they are doing in their lives to address the challenge. I who usually have so much to say on the topic am too tired to speak after our long flight here; I feel exhausted. A communal dinner is arranged at our rented accommodation with a beautiful bowl of exotic fruitfor dessert the likes of which I have never seen or tasted before.