The Mistake Room is pleased to announce that it will inaugurate its renovated space with an ambitious, newly commissioned project by Thailand-born, New York-based artist Korakrit Arunanondchai (b. 1986 Thailand). This project marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles and his first major institutional commission. An opening reception will be held Friday, July 18th from 7:30 – 9:30 PM.
Following his first solo museum presentation at MoMA PS1, NY (on view through September 14, 2014), that brought together a focused selection of the artist’s previous work, The Mistake Room will debut the first part of Arunanondchai’s new long-term project.
This new body of work will encompass an ongoing series of exhibitions each anchored around the introduction and development of a character that will form part of the ensemble of the artist’s future feature film. In these projects, conceived as biographical vignettes that function as backstories of a broader cinematic narrative, Arunanondchai introduces archetypal personas that find themselves experiencing the generational complexities associated with living in Thailand and more broadly, Asia, at this particular historical moment. As characters find themselves situated in societies with deep bonds to ancestral traditions, long-standing spiritual practices, and distinct cultural values, they are confronted with the realities of living in a world whose fast-paced and rapidly changing rhythms are structured and dictated by volatile geopolitical and economic forces.
At the heart of Arunanondchai’s new project is an interest in presenting, from multiple points of view, how charged moments of historical transformation impact the social and cultural processes of entire societies and in turn, the day-to-day lives of peoples. In these exhibitions, Arunanondchai poignantly unveils what happens when history, heritage, and tradition collapse into a world of anxiety, immediacy, deregulation, and detachment; a world where myths of innovation and notions of “the new” have become ideals of progress, and history is often only referenced as a passing side note.
The exhibition at The Mistake Room, which for the first time merges the artist’s performance practice with his studio investigations in an exhibition context, is structured as a performative experience guided by two alternating actresses that the artist has collaborated with on the occasion of this show. Consolidating new paintings, sculptures, and videos into an immersive experiential installation, Arunanondchai blurs the boundary between ritual and guided exhibition tour; marking a drastic new approach to the presentation of his work. In this first vignette, Arunanondchai introduces the archetype of the young artist through the strategies mobilized in recent years by Eastern religions in their effort to deepen their relationship with a growing demographic of Thai youth. A video that mimics a late-night personal endorsement ad for an undefined product introduces the experience that is then followed by a timed group visit to an adjacent large-scale gathering site reminiscent of both a Buddhist temple and a futuristic luxury retail store where belonging is priced via a line of body cleansing products. As religion and consumption intertwine, historical processes are unpacked and exposed; rendering visible the transformation of spiritual faith into lifestyle brand that is occurring today in Thailand and beyond.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/99007898[/vimeo]
The Mistake Room 1811 E. 20th Street LA, CA 90058
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