This month NY Art Life has selected Sy Chounchaisit: a Thai NYC-based multidisciplinary artist who is utilizing performative photography and performance to sell stories we otherwise would not have heard.
NY Art Life
We are so excited to have selected you this month! It’s such an honor to discuss your achievements and your unique career. You are truly doing things that other artists are afraid to embark on. Your work demonstrates strength, confidence, courage and most importantly high art techniques that raise your work from low-brow to high-brow.
SY
I’m still can’t believe I’ve been selected. I follow your publication and I truly value the input and standing you have in the arts industries around the world.
I’m excited to talk to you about my accomplishments and my projects!
NY Art Life
Let’s talk about your world in the performing arts.
SY
Well that’s a complicated question because my work blurs the definition of the performing arts. When people think of the performing arts, they think of a play or a musical. As a performer that has toured nationally in Legally Blonde The Musical National Tour and performed with Broadway stars and legends, performing arts is much more multifaceted than that.
Performing never stops and it’s not just limited to a play. I perform on stage but I also perform for the camera and with the camera. Taking a picture is performing, just as being in front of the camera is performing, just as being on the stage is performing.
I’m constantly performing, but with different forums, materials, stages, etc.
NY Art Life
Yes! I know what you mean. Everything you described, I see it in your work with Moevir Magazine. The photographs of you in red are stunning. That series examine the relation, and difference, between performance and performativity. Your stunning work encourages us to think about the ways in which the photograph and photography are considered a performer
SY
Exactly, with performance and photography lays the fundamental ability to not only document but to create a world. As such, I am particularly attuned to queer, feminist, trans, and critical race and ethnicity studies that create new terrains for the usefulness of photography and performance. This is also seen in my extensive use of working with BIPOC and most notably my Hate is a Virus series.
NY Art Life
I love that series. That is actually what influenced us to select you. Can you discuss more your process and your performance for the photograph.
SY
Absolutely. The pandemic brought out many issues that we deal with as a country, including racism. The BLM matter movement and the George Floyd tragedy truly showed us the extent of racism in america. The tragic killing of nine Asian American women in Atlanta were also horrifying. In the midst of these two tragedies, however, there were some people that were trying to change the narrative and cause divisiveness for BI
In the second photo of the series, I have a pained expression on my faith. In order to do that successfully, I utilized several different acting techniques to be able to get to that place of pain that you see.
NY Art Life
Thank you for sharing your performative photographs with the world. This art form is raw and is sort of like an extension of your performances on stage.
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