The Pleasure of Getting Lost: Heman Chong at The Reading Room
By Jasmin Stephens
In September, on a Bangkok rooftop, a group of wanderers and forgetters recently offered their concerted support as one of them struggled to memorise and retell word-for-word a story written by Heman Chong. They were gathered at Bangkok’s The Reading Room for the third in a series of exhibitions orchestrated by Chong—editions were previously held at Rossi & Rossi in Hong Kong and Future Perfect in Singapore—entitled "The Part in The Story Where We Lost Count Of The Days."
As this feat of memorization unfolded on the roof, visitors in the room below were simultaneously treated to a staged reading with live translation. The Reading Room’s director, Narawan Pathomvat, selected a classic Thai text, A Dancer’s Arm (1950) by Manus Chanyong, to be translated into English. In the cool surroundings of the archive, concentration deepened as listeners followed the cadence of familiar words and new phrases, and were reminded of the themes of agency and destiny. Being read aloud to helped to forge a group dynamic. As the cycle of reading, speaking and listening between the two spaces intensified, there was a heightened sense that Chong’s story would be fully realized through the efforts of both groups of participants, through each’s sympathetic presence.
