Korakrit Arunanondchai (b. 1986, Bangkok)
As a visual artist, filmmaker, and storyteller, Korakrit Arunanondchai employs his versatile practice to tell stories embedded in cultural transplantation and hybridity. Merging fiction with poetry, his body of work offers synesthetic experiences engaged in a multitude of subjects primarily based on the lives of family members, friends, and colleagues as much as local myths. Surpassing a solitary artist, he is an avid collaborator who has worked on videos, performances and music together with an extensive list of people.
Painting with History Archive – 2556, 2013
Single-channel video, color, sound, 20:42 min
Courtesy of the Artist, C L E A R I N G (New York/Brussels), Carlos/Ishikawa (London), BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY (Bangkok)
In 2013, Korakrit continued his play with time by naming the title in the Buddhist Calendar. Centered around the question of what art is and his self-actualization, the video opens with a quote about what an artist is from Silpa Bhirasri who is considered the father of modern art in Thailand. Then the narrative presents the artist’s performance based on 2012’s bare breast painting act by Duangjai Junsaonoi, a female contestant of the then-popular program Thailand’s Got Talent aired on national television, followed by an interview clip between a famed national television report and Chalermchai Kositpipat, a renowned national artist, speaking on the controversy and criticizing what is art and what is not.
Painting with history in a room filled with people with funny names 3, 2015
Single-channel video, color, sound, 24:55 min
Courtesy of the Artist, CLEARING (New York / Brussels), Carlos/Ishikawa (London), BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY (Bangkok)
An epilogue to the 2012-2555, 2556, 2557 Video Trilogy, this video centers around a conversation between ‘The Denim Painter’, a representation of the artist, and ‘Chantri’, an omniscient spirit. Within his intimate letter to the latter, fragments of Arunanondchai’s thoughts on spirituality, technology, and geopolitics fused to narrate his views towards contemporary society. Here, reality, fiction and fantasy blend in with one another as Arunanondchai ruminates on Buddhist and Animistic beliefs, and the implications of being an artist in the evermore complicated present.
Discover Khun Korakrit Arunanondchai‘s works at @sawangsawaisiwilai exhibition
Venue: Level 4, Central: The Original Store. .
3 Mar ’22 – 27 Mar ’22
#SawangSawaiSiwilai @kritbangkok @central.theoriginalstore
