The Sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

212 Wit Pimkanchanapong I, you, we 2009 Speaking Thai is not about playing a time travelling game, but more about a role playing game. Yes, it is very similar to how you choose your ‘avatar’ character in a video game. Thai language allows you to change your ‘self’ [in] every sentence, depending on the situation. There are more than ten versions of ‘I’ available to choose from, and ‘you’ will change accordingly. There is the ‘formal I’, ‘polite I’, ‘friendly I’, ‘arrogant I’, ‘small I’, ‘very small I’, ‘feminine I’, ‘masculine I’, and a lot more. It is about social hierarchy in a culture where the language is more aware of who we are, whom we are talking to, and what situation we are in now. I, you, we interprets this assumption . . . to make it direct and straightforward, to let ‘(small) you’ understand ‘(big) me’ when I speak English. — Wit Pimkanchanapong Wit Pimkanchanapong’s I, you, we is a multimedia activity where the participants become the subject. Images of two people’s faces are first captured on camera in the activity space. With a little technical magic, their facial features are fragmented and recombined to form a new portrait, with surprising results. Posters of the collaborative portrait I, you, we can then be emailed home or to a friend as a memento of a visit to Kids’ APT. KR Wit Pimkanchanapong Thailand b.1976 Test image for I, you, we 2009 Commissioned for APT6 / Courtesy: The artist Pacific Reggae / Marcel Meltherorong aka Mars Melto Singsing with Marcel 2009 I see my music as a tool — a way of teaching my children and future generations about holding on to Vanuatu culture, our customs and our traditions at a time when Western influence is changing our way of life. Many people are concerned about our country and our children’s place in it — where do they fit in with these two different cultures? And how do they hold on to their own culture when Western influences, in cities like Port Vila, are so flashy and shiny? We are questioning ourselves. I remember an old fella told me that if we can marry Western knowledge with our traditional knowledge that would make our children ‘twice wise’. — Marcel Meltherorong Marcel Meltherorong — reggae musician, and singer and songwriter for XX Squad — invites everyone to join him and ‘singsing’, which means to sing loud in Bislama, one of the many languages spoken across the archipelago of Vanuatu. In this multimedia activity, children are introduced to Marcel, his country and reggae music before stepping into the karaoke-style booth to sing and dance to his popular reggae track ‘Children’s day’. Children’s performances are recorded and played back on the big screen in video clip format for everyone to watch and enjoy. KR Marcel Meltherorong aka Mars Melto New Caledonia/Vanuatu b.1975 Singsing with Marcel (stills) 2009 Commissioned for APT6 / Courtesy: The artist