Object size: 146.0 x 221.0 x 2.0 cm
Soldier Series emerges from Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s longstanding interest in the history and future of Thailand’s militarization. With mandatory national conscription, military service is regarded as a universal rite of passage for men. But public attitudes towards the military and conscription are heterogenous, often splintered along political, ethnic, and socio-economic lines. In A Young Man at Twilight, the jarringly bright camera flash obscures the soldier’s visage, leaving his identity in question. He emerges from the darkness of a wild banana grove, an archetypal site of ghastly haunting in Thai lore. The status of the soldier remains open: Friend or foe, human or spirit? Is he here to steal lives, or is he a young man whose life has been stolen? Anxiety hangs in the air over this uncertain encounter with a military figure, who is embodied and real, yet exceedingly abstract and distant.
