KORAKRIT ARUNANONDCHAI

WHAT KIND OF PAINTING WILL YOU BE MAKING IN THE FUTURE? BANGKOK WELCOMED TWO EXHIBITIONS BY THE DENIM PAINTER TO ITS GALLERIES THIS SUMMER. 

“The artist lives his life with appreciation for the mysterious and fantastical qualities of the universe. He is overtaken by a passionate dream and an overflowing generosity as he takes his soul and combines it with nature to become one with the sky,” speaks Korakrit Arunanondchai in 2556, one of a trilogy of videos exhibited within the 2012-2555, 2556, 2557   installation at the Jim Thompson Art Center being held this summer and marking Arunanondchai’s first solo exhibition in Bangkok.

 

The Denim Painter’s works, which encompass paintings, videos, installations and performance, tackle a myriad of topics ranging from spirituality and history to technology, pop culture and the role of art in life, all of which find their place within  his thought and working process as it has unfolded over the past four years. “The work, in a way, is an engine for memory keeping and memory making,” describes Arunanondchai of the exhibition. “The form and materiality of this engine feeling a lot like a membrane.”

The first of the video trilogy, 2012-2555 (2012) presents clips of Arunanondchai’s performances in the US as well as experiences captured here in Thailand, visualizing memory via the split-screen presentation of images and dialogue that play both out and with one another in a manner similar to thoughts preceding and following feeling – finding means to establish a storyboard that is in many ways much more cumulative than linear. “The wind is a spirit, a spirit from the future that is here to remind us about the past,” dictates Arunanondchai as the first chapter of the series comes to an end and the second lights up the screen behind us, the exhibition space strewn with the artist’s signature denim pillows ensuring that the viewer falls comfortably into the story playing out before them and feels inclined to stay for a while.

Chapter two, 2556 (2013) centers around reference to a controversial body painting performance on the popular television program, Thailand’s Got Talent as Arunanondchai asks the viewer, “Did you see that TV show? There was a good opportunity there, to give definition to what art is today.” The topless body painter, whose performance was met with widespread coverage as well as public reprimand by renowned Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat, and Arundunchai’s own appropriation of the act questioning both the state of art in contemporary society as well as if any real reliable framework can exist through which artistic value may be determined.

2557, Painting with History in a Room Filled with Funny Names 2 (2014) furthers the line of inquiry as it follows Arunanondchai and his twin brother, Korapat through a trip to Chalermchai’s White Temple in Chiang Rai during which the dichotomy between East and West, relationships between the digital and corporeal, boundaries within fiction and reality and even the ultimate role of art in life all come into play – a slating of subject matter that might seem a lot to take in, but due to the MV-esque quality of the film remains easy and enjoyable to consume.

 

Complementing exhibition, ‘Painting with History in a Room Filled with People with Funny Names 3’ at Bangkok CityCity Gallery falls in line in terms of format with previous of the artist’s installations, such as that held at Palais de Tokyo last year in which half-burned, denim-clad, paint-covered manikins fill the venue with a presence and aura that radiates their own sense of history – as if something epic or extraordinary must have occurred, the feeling that one has arrived at the party too late, the show already over. This time, however, the show was far from that, as an opening musical performance by guest Yellow Fang, screening of the epilogue to the film series and live performances by Arunanondchai and frequent collaborators Boychild and  Alex Gvojic provided opportunity for one to feel as if the likes of those moments and memories captured in Arunanondchai’s videos were unfolding in realtime here, too.

 

“I got an email from myself, a self in the year 2556,” narrates Arunanondchai in the film. “It said something like this. In search for an authentic experience I traveled to a place that preceded human consciousness. A site of culture where its inhabitants moved to the future and, even though by now I know that this quest was a failure, I would still like to appreciate this. The universe communicates with you through an image, an image of magic. It makes you believe that there is an other side. My grandfather, and his great grandfather all were wondering the same thing. Each one had an answer and they all believed they were right, but I want to believe that I am right too. So, I have to make a decision. My answer would be a metaphor.”

Arunandchai’s exhibitions at the Jim Thompson Art Center and Bangkok CityCity Gallery are like metaphor, or maybe rather catalyst – for the creation of that authentic experience, the kind brought about as memories themselves are made.

 

“Young painter, what kind of painting will you be making in the future?” Arundunchai asks aloud in 2557. “Will you think all of this is funny, or kind of sad? Maybe ironic?” It’s a question we’d like to pose too, and, while it’s easy to get wrapped up with the Denim Painter’s character and let the element of the artist’s persona take center stage, ultimately, what he’s presented, is drawn from a perspective that looks out rather than in, a documentation of thought, experience and life as it unfolds. And, at the heart of that matter, art also isn’t ever really even about a person or a thing. Art is a way of thinking about and being in the world and, as “The artist has a relationship with the sky, the ocean, the mountain and the flatlands,” voices Arunanondchai, “he understands that the whisper of the wind is a flaming light that is the brightest color…” This summer, we can choose to listen to that whisper too, and take a seat in the room amongst all those men with funny names as “Together we entertain, all the way home to the land of freedom and smile…in Bangkok City City!, Bangkok City City!, Bangkok City City!…” with Korarkit Arunanondchai.

2012-2555, 2556, 2557  is on view  at the Jim Thompson Art Center through 10 Sept, 2016

TEXT: REBECCA VICKERS
korakrit.com