สำเภาทอง
Thailand / Belgium 2002
2:12 minutes, looped / Digital, 4:3, Silent / Colour
Director / Camera / Editor: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Golden Ship and Sketch for Tropical Malady were presented as a 2 screen installation at the group exhibition What? A Tale in Free Images at Memlingsmuseum, Brugge, Belgium, October 5 – November 17, 2002, curated by Cis Bierinckx.

GOLDEN SHIP (Sampao Tong) was originally a novel about a rich family life turns upside down by the economic crash. In 2002, Channel 3 Television, Thailand, made an adaptation and turned it into a television show. Then another company re-adapted a television script and published a “TV Novel” or a “TV Magazine”. Apichatpong reintroduces the story back from the magazine to a moving image again, but retain the magazine format. The video was made with non-professional actors.

GOLDEN SHIP is the 5th work in the series of Haunted Houses Project that Apichatpong deals with media addiction in Thailand. Most of the works involve television viewers or radio listeners to participate in their own media production. The works focus on the narrative reproduction, exploitation, and impersonation in various forms.