a light that never goes out
2024
Oil on Canvas, Stainles steel engraved frame
23 x 29 x 2.5 cm
a light that never goes out reflects on the lingering presence of imperial legacies in urban infrastructure. A chandelier from a museum — intended to preserve architectural styles from different eras — embodies a period when modernisation flourished in an effort to keep colonial powers at bay. Yet, this structure remains in use today, a relic of that period’s decorum. These architectural elements, which were once part of colonial landscapes, are now regarded as tourist attractions, scattered across the urban frameworks of hotels and cafes. Despite modernisation pushing the betel nut and its practices into obscurity, fragments of Western imperialism still linger within Bangkok’s crevices, hidden in the very architecture of the city.
This series is an act of resistance against forgetting, amplifying the overlooked and disregarded through an amalgamation of artefacts and symbolism. These works become a site of remembrance, a transfiguration between opacities, impermanence, and the liminal. They stand as a testament and repository to the existence of these traditions in Sasi Organ’s life, affirming her place in the present and future by manifesting the past — the self, solid yet constantly in flux.