This work not only reflects the lives of people living outside the advantages of economic prosperity, but also confronts us, with questions concerning the basic values of identity in this globalised world.

As identities morph in the globalization age – either strengthening in asocial structure; or diminishing through global policy and numeration – People struggle to understand who they are. People who maintain their local identities are marginalised and silenced in the process of globalisation. The victims of this process are the elderly – who aim to maintain their traditions without reason or desire to change.
Voiceless Room is one of my earlier pieces (1994) to demonstrate the conflict between local identities and modern life in my hometown, Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was executed during the peak economic boom in Thailand when globalisation was promoted extensively for our society. Photo-graphs of elderly people from rural areas of Chiang Mai were encapsulated inside old medicine bottles from the garbage bins. The older generations in Chiang Mai strongly identify with local culture, heritage and language. They have been marginalised due to their insistence in maintaining this identity consequently isolated from mainstream Thai and global life espoused by the younger generations. They stand still in the closed bottles kept inside an old cupboard like an antique piece in a historical museum, re-presenting the isolation forced upon them in the face of globalisation that has not left room for their local identities rendering them voiceless in the present and future. This work not only reflects the lives of people living outside the advantages of economic prosperity, but also confronts us, with questions concerning the basic values of identity in this globalised world.