Big Foot

How many people would enjoy with being alone on the deserted mountains that have nothing apart from ice and rock, with getting lost alone all day without a compass, with shouting in the sky without no one hearing, with crying without no one near?

Happiness that can’t be written in vocabulary. Happiness that seems to be like selfishness…because you are the only one who feel it from your own heart.

How many people who would understand that pleasure?

Because some people fear to be alone…fear of loneliness, of emptiness, of being no friends, of if the other wouldn’t listen, of their jokes wouldn’t be sold, of if their knowledge and experience would be lower than the others…

So they like to be in the groups…to hide themselves from fear…

Fear of themselves.

Excerpt from Big Foot book, 2012

 

Introduction

Big Foot was an experimental art project that focused on exploration of place and people on one of the highest places on earth; Big Foot was concerned with process rather than the final product. Big Foot was lead by imagination that brought the project beyond our comfort zone to reveal isolation, loneliness, survival and limits of our mind and body.

With the use of basic digital film equipment as a communication tool (or art material) and the process of navigating by foot on one of the highest trails on earth, Big Foot revealed unexpected stories and possibilities.

Journeys

I traveled with my friend to the Himalaya along the Annapurna Circuit extended to Annapurna Santuary in 2010. My friend separated after 10 days to go back home, leaving me alone to travel throughout the one month trek. 

After coming back home, I felt like I needed to go back again and walk the same route. So the following year in 2011, at the same month, I went back to Nepal again – this time alone. 

I carried almost 30 kg of luggage including camera equipment, camping gear, and food. This allowed me to get closer to the mountains and local people as I had more freedom to go off the main routes and camp together among the local hunters. 

Film Festival 2010

With support from Independent Film Society (IFS), in association with the Royal Thai Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal Tourism Board, and Film Development Board Nepal, we organized a Thai Short Film Festival with the films I gathered.

The film screening was presented at Nepal Tourism Board. The Ambassador of Thailand to Nepal honored as the audience and opening ceremony. 


Travel grant was sponsored by 

 

In collaboration with 

Exhibition 2010

Big Foot was part of a group art exhibition entitled ComPeung Revisited at Chiang Mai City Arts and Cultural Center, December 2 – 29, 2010. 
 
The work showcased the first draft of my book Big Foot together with some photos and excerpt from the book. 

Big Foot Book (2011) 

According to the original plan, the outcome of Big Foot would be a short film. But plans changed, and the video footage and photographs became great materials for a book.

I began to write a book about my first experience in Nepal over 12 years before Big Foot project started. But I didn’t go further than a few chapters. The recent journeys in 2010 – 2011 encouraged me to finish what I had left unfinished. 

After another year, Big Foot became a travel memoir  – a mixture of recollection and reflection that reveals how a series of journeys, transformed myself as an ordinary person. Big Foot was written in Thai and self published with 300 pages. 

 

Year: 2010 – 2011
Venue: Annapurna (2010 – 2011), Nepal Tourism Board, Kathmandu, Nepal (2010), Chiang Mai City Arts and Cultural Center (2010), Book shops in Chiang Mai City.