At the dawn of the earth, a pair of winged golden spiders were sent to weave the sky, which then blanketed the world. Afterward, they flew north, where they died from the cold. Their bodies transformed into two magical herbs, believed to cure, resurrect, and bring life.
Pun ko mung: Tai-Ahom Cosmology Manuscript.
Thumb Centric Cosmology
Bangkok Art Biennale 2024 | Nurture Gaia,
The National Gallery, Bangkok, From 24 Oct 2024 - 25 Feb 2025.
Can looking at stars on a mobile phone still evoke the sense of connection to the Earth once felt when gazing at the night sky? If so, what kind of relationship with the Earth or the universe would we experience? With a thumb-centered perspective, this project aims to craft a cybernetic cosmology—one in which, through the screen of a mobile phone, we feel a sense of connection to the cybernetic Earth and the cosmos.
Last year, I tried to see a comet, but city lights and clouds obscured the sky. Instead, I watched a live stream of the comet on my phone, likely joined by more people than those actually looking up. Despite its beauty on screen, the experience felt insignificant. This sparked thoughts about the journey from the sky to our mobile devices—and the changing way we interact with the universe.
As we now look down to see the sky through our phones, the sky—the sense of connection we once felt with the Earth while star-gazing—are fading, replaced by the act of looking down and the connection to the internet, even though these digital realms are grounded in the Earth’s resources.
The paintings, sculptures, and installations in this project explore a thumb-centric cosmology, seeing the sky and screens as one, suggesting a new version of reveries and feelings of connection with the Earth—a cybernetic Earth filled with satellites, internet, microplastics, pollution, and so on. Drawing from the Tai Ahom creation myth, in which two golden-winged spiders weave the sky, the work reflects how we now encounter the stars online, trapped in a web of networks—under a 'web sky.'
Curiously and conspiratorially, imagining the deep connection to the world through our thumbs, while we're immersed in the internet or looking at the stars through the filter of our screens.
