Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: The Bouquet and the Wreath

The acclaimed Thai artist’s first international large-scale survey exhibition brings together works from the last 45 years alongside new commissions. Including performance, video and installations plus some large-scale sculptures not seen since the 1990s, the exhibition fills the indoor galleries, lobby and courtyard of Jameel Arts Centre and showcases Rasdjarmrearnsook’s evolution and ongoing engagement with societal, philosophical and environmental question.

From flowers and beds to stray dogs and notes, the exhibition brings to the fore the artist’s enduring preoccupations with desire and mortality, difference and curiosity, allowing viewers to tap into layered philosophical questions: What is the purpose of art? What does it mean to be human? As she playfully observes, “I don’t need to spell out everything that I feel, do I?”

Conceived by guest curators Kittima Chareeprasit, curator at Chiang Mai’s MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (with whom the show is presented) and Roger Nelson, art historian and curator, the exhibition is accompanied by a substantial publication featuring perspectives from scholars, curators, artists and writers.

To 8 March.

Above: Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Two Planets: Millet’s The Gleaners and the Thai Farmers (single-channel video)