Archival Time on Our Retina, an exhibition juxtaposing contemporary video art with archive footage, opens at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya today and runs until 1st June. It includes Taiki Sakpisit’s short film The Age of Anxiety which, with its rapid-fire editing and screeching soundtrack, captured the anxious atmosphere during the twilight of King Rama IX’s reign. The film’s English title reflects the national mood while Rama IX was hospitalised, though its original Thai title (รอ ๑๐) added another interpretation.
The Age of Anxiety was previously shown at Gallery Movie Night last year, at the 25th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 25), and at Histoire(s) du thai cinéma [sic] (‘histories of Thai cinema’). It was first screened on three occasions in 2013: on 16th February at the Lost in Utopia exhibition at Bo(ok)hemian Arthouse in Phuket, on 3rd March when that exhibition transferred to The Reading Room in Bangkok, and on 31st August at the 17th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 17).