Of Worms,Geckos and Turtles: An Encounter With Southeast Asian Ecocritical Moving Image Works

Abstract

Given the combined context of the present climate emergency and hegemonic neoliberal world order, some contemporary artists have begun to grapple with and critique this status quo through their work. In the context of Southeast Asia, these experiences manifest by way of extreme weather such as unpredictable monsoon seasons, flash floods, extreme heat, and are combined with continued resource extraction and accelerated infrastructural development. To reflect these lived realities, moving image has emerged as a salient tool in engaging with ecocriticism. This paper is interested how artists from Southeast Asia are using moving image to communicate local worldviews and indigenous cosmologies. Time in film often follows a linear trajectory, with minutes steadily moving along a progress bar at the bottom of one’s media player or screen. It is an inherently chronological medium, but also one that is defined by a sequence of images in motion. Whilst artists are cognisant of moving image’s inherent qualities, they also seek to subvert or reshape the medium to make space for multiple perspectives or inconclusive narratives. The paper is also interested in how moving image works might also experiment with visibility and visuality across a variety of scales. Whilst images might often present indexically on screen, artists have wielded strategies such as multiple roles, found or archival footage, collage, poetry, sound, and communal authorship to deal with more-than-human subject matter such as the spiritual (deities, spectres, and other dimensional entities) and the directional (currents, wind, etc). To illustrate its points, this paper will consider works such as Monisme by Riar Rizaldi (2023), Kindred by Lêna Bùi (2021) and Tirta Maya by Zachary Chan and Rosemainy Buang (2024) to provide a glimpse into how these shapeshifting moving image works might nudge viewers towards considering a different conception of time, space, and relationship to the more-than-human.