“Barberry” is a film project that addresses the ritual practices of Thai communities in the U.S. By visiting the prop-set restaurant, you will be watching the film “Barberry” while at the same time acting in it - thus experiencing Thai life whilst away from home.

Dislocated Image
“Barberry” is presented as a conceptual film project that has been set at a Thai restaurant located at 2819 N. Southport, Chicago. The restaurant’s name is “Barberry”. Its interior is designed to create a movie studio like situation. Even though, “Barberry” is designed to resemble a restaurant prop set, it is also a real functioning restaurant business that serves Thai food in a very family kitchen-like style. The Vatanatanyakum family runs the kitchen, and images selected from their family photo album are used to decorate the wall. In this sense, the photos reinforce the notion of a family restaurant, and they also create a nostalgic environment among customers from the Thai community, as the photos depict images from a past time when they were still in Thailand.

“Barberry” is inspired in its real life content from the Vatanatanyakum family – five years ago the mother first came to the States, paving the way for her daughter and son to arrive in order to pursue their higher education. After their arrival, they worked hard in various restaurants, prior to opening their own restaurant several years later.

“Barberry” is conceptually designed as a film project that addresses the ritual practices of foreign communities in the U.S. – in this case the Thai community. Situations arising at the restaurant create interplay of cinemagraphic elements by itself, and it allows the drift of the narrative structure to drive the content of the film. Put simply, “Barberry” is a film about a Thai family owning a Thai restaurant in Chicago; however, this film does not need to be shot, because it is a film that cannot be replayed.

The prop never changes but the situation itself remains ephemeral. The audience can only experience the film by visiting the restaurant; it is then that they will be watching the film “Barberry” while at the same time acting in it. Nevertheless, the film can again be discussed as an idea without it having been watched.
Since “Barberry” is a prop set that looks like a restaurant, the lives of the people who are running it also becomes part of the prop set. Is this not a reflection of real life albeit in a dislocated context?

Freeze-frame
Part of the restaurant will be re-built, and be placed in a different context. In this case, it will be set in an exhibition in Thailand or Germany. The Vatanatanyakum family owns a Thai restaurant in Chicago – we will see a small section of their life brought back to Thailand as a frozen image, an imitation of the prop set from the restaurant “Barberry”.

Flash back Camera
To shoot a film is to record the phenomenal world, or reality within a certain time frame according to the accuracy of film speed, light, camera shutters and lenses. From this perspective, the phenomenal world will be taken in, and be inscribed onto the film through a camera obscura process. But when the film is screened, a film projector will work in reverse direction. A film projector will project images from the celluloid by the light and through the lenses onto the screen with precise frame speed per second. Human perception works the same way as the film machine does.

Yet, here doubts remain whether the reality (or even a part of it) can be framed, and if it can be re-run, in this case, through a movie projector.

For the exhibition in Thailand and Germany, a gigantic flash back camera will be installed. But instead of recording, or taking in images, this camera will project red, blue, and green light onto the space replicated from the restaurant “Barberry” in Chicago. The replicated space will be glazed with three primary spectrum colours / lights which are basic visual elements that play a major role in human perception. This is how the freeze-frame image works: Imagine lifelessness and inactivity in the same way as a prop. It is up to you the individual to decide how the film, “Barberry” will be experienced.