In this creative writing piece and visual diary, Aracha Cholitgul shares insights into their residency at Delfina Foundation in winter 2025. Aracha examines the idea of what it means to leave home behind, how to create a temporary home abroad, while exploring the notion of family history. The piece is an exploration of just some of the elements of Aracha’s research and thought process during the residency.
Going to the residency means that no one’s home. The cat had to be moved from home in Chiang Mai to Bangkok so the family could care for the cat. There were two CCTVS at the house. The one upstairs sometimes caught the cat sleeping. The one downstairs caught the family doing yoga on Monday and Thursday.
Recently, the brain was occupied with thoughts around moving and accidents.
Thinking about how driving makes people reflect on life and death.
Being in a car brings death closer.
But forward ambulation is good for the nervous system and the mind.
One artist said that walking or moving means constantly putting oneself between the state of stability and instability.
Coming to the residency means there’s also going back home.
The luggage was fully loaded with Asian cooking sauce and food from the home country on the way in. Many objects from home travelled here to replicate the feeling of the home. Not sure what will take up the weight on the way out, yet.
After moving around the Delfina house basement a few spots, the studio was settled where there was supposedly good feng shui and kept a good distance from the bathroom. The floor has good floor heating. And sitting on the floor was nice when the boiler was at full capacity. A makeshift ping-pong table was also set up to exercise hand-eye coordination and brain stimulation.
In the current project, there’s a lot of thinking.
Thinking about the history of a family, and the lack of history.
Thinking about things that have been buried and hesitating about the excavation.
Thinking about moving through life as a person.
Eventually, a break from thinking and the city was needed. A fortune teller once recommended going to a forest or nature at least once a month to avoid going insane. So, an escape was made to Seven Sisters on a sunny day. The thinking wasn’t thinking. Instead, the feeling made a decision to go for a sunset walk with strangers that extended into the night.
After some time, the group gave up and decided to hitch a ride in the darkness. Someone was kind enough to give the group a ride back to the town of Eastbourne. There were some fears of accidents, but nothing happened. In the end, all was well, and everyone returned safely to home.
