Setthasiri Chanjaradpong

Syyeww was born in Thonburi and studied at Silpakorn University. He began with an interest in filmmaking and video art, interned at Eyedropper Fill and later moved into freelance creative and video work. By the time I photographed him, he had left Bangkok for Chiang Mai, drawn by a lower cost of living and by an art community that gave him more room to work.

His practice is difficult to reduce to one role. He moves between documentary filmmaking, production, concert visuals, performance and installation, and had become involved with Chiang Mai’s experimental art-and-technology scene. One project, Walking Home, explored ideas of roots, migration and belonging through the experiences of people who had arrived in Chiang Mai for very different reasons. It was featured at Chiang Mai Design Week 2024 and Awakening Chiang Mai 2024.

For the portrait, Syyeww first welcomed me into the house and studio he shared with another artist. Later, we rode our motorbikes to a friend’s place, where he showed me the food cart he had designed for Walking Home. I felt an immediate familiarity in the way he moved between supporting other people’s projects and maintaining his own practice. Leaving him and his cart, I found myself wondering whether a similar move away from Bangkok might once have suited me too. I’m certain Syyeww has no regrets about trading Bangkok’s commercial grind for the creative freedom he found in Chiang Mai.