
Pratchaya Phinthong Thailand, b. 1974
A Little of Everything and Nothing at All (Cheorwon and Sarang), the new painting diptych interrelated to The Organ of Destiny (Assembly), zooms into the story of Cheorwon and Sarang, a female and a male crane couple both wounded and taken special care by the DMZ Peace Town for Migratory Cranes in Cheorwon-gun, Gangwon Province. The painting is of a photograph Phinthong took of the infertile eggs Cheorwon and Sarang laid during his visit to the DMZ Peace Town. The size of the work is congruent to the standard crane egg. Cranes are known to have one partner during their lifetime, and one or two chicks, remarkably similar to a heteronormative nuclear family. The family unit stays together even when a member is left behind wounded. Because of both their health conditions, Cheorwon and Sarang have been laying infertile eggs for two consecutive years without leaving the DMZ. Associated with Phinthong’s usage of diptychs as a duplicate of photographs, this work further underscores the notion of multiplicity in regeneration and hope.