Heat Death -- Issue 1: Artefact Insulam

by New Juche

ARCHITECTURE; FAITE URBAINE; RUIN PORN; PHOTOGRAPHY; CHINESE BAROQUE; CONCRETE; PHUKET; PATONG; TIN; TOURISM; CORONAVIRUS; DAMAGE; REFUSE; ECOLOGY; PROSTITUTION; EMPTINESS; TROPICAL DECAY; NEW SECRET PATHS AND DANCING PLACES

In a room on the top floor I closed the door behind me and took a photo album into the dusty bathtub and lent back with my knees up in front of me and my head on a greasy pillow. Light filtered very pleasantly down through the green vines that laced the unglazed window and the fulsome trees outside. A second shaft of light fell through a space in the torn ceiling. My body felt very still, apart from my heart which I could feel beating and also hear, and it was the only sound in the room apart from birdsong.

192 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2023

About the author

New Juche is the nom de guerre of a writer and photographer who lives and works in Southeast Asia. He is also the author of Wasteland, The Mollusc and Gymnasium.

Reviews

[Bill Hsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

In March 2021, a year after Thailand closed its borders to combat the pandemic, the author traveled to Phuket and wandered through Patong, once thronged with tourists, then largely abandoned. New Juche fans will be familiar with his gorgeous photographs of urban ruin, and measured, thoughtful ruminations.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The human-made islands that comprise the subject of New Juche’s most recent work are the late-19th-century cement structures erected by European imperialist corporations and government entities in response to denuding Thailand of its natural resources, tin in particular. During the pandemic, when the Thai government had shut down almost everything, New Juche decided to explore such places as Phucket and Patong, now known to the rest of the world for their beaches and prostitutes, the draw of tourism having replaced tin as Thailand’s main source of revenue. New Juche discovers—and records with ample photographs—an endless series of abandoned buildings, abandoned first by their shop and bar owners after the government-ordered shut-down, then stripped by thieves of every material that could be sold as scrap, then inhabited by the homeless, and finally abandoned by even the homeless—none of these buildings have access to electricity, and their only amenity to creature comfort is shade from the sun and protection from the rain. This is ruin porn in its most degraded condition, in which a country has been reduced to serving as a toilet for the rest of the world.

For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...

[Ben Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

New Juche guides us through the ruined and eternally spoiled remnants of Thailand's once thriving architecture, a "ruin porn" that stays all the more appealing to those who share the author's specialist tastes.