Influenced equally by an adolescence spent surrounded by Thai pop culture and an artistic training and career based in the U.S., Korakrit Arunanondchai’s (b. 1986, Bangkok) practice mines globalized subjectivities for their underlying tensions. Rather than linger on geographically specific subject matter, he adopts denim—a fabric as universal as any in the world today—as a physical and symbolic means of intensifying these investigations. Originally a staple of the working class wardrobe which later became a universal sign of youth, the textile can be found across Arunanondchai’s recent paintings, sculptures, videos, and performances, as well as in this, the artist’s first solo show in China—a country known for its prodigious export (and, increasingly, consumption) of denim goods.
For his UCCA exhibition, Korakrit Arunanondchai shows a grouping of works including video, installation, and painting, expanding this presentation through on-site performance. Special treatment is given to his ongoing video trilogy, which collages fictive narratives with experiences taken from his family and artistic life, arranging them based on the interlocking themes of death, purgatory, and rebirth. The videos are a visual construction of the artist’s thinking on memory, mortality, identity, and masculinity. The exhibition is produced in collaboration with MoMA PS1.
