Press Release
Arin Rungjang: Golden Teardrop
Future Perfect, Singapore
Opening reception, Wednesday 23 October, 7 – 9pm
Conversation with the artist, Friday 25 October, 4 – 5pm
*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*
Future Perfect is proud to present the first solo exhibition in Singapore by mercurial installation artist, Arin Rungjang, fresh from the success of his beguiling Thai pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale. As the Southeast Asian art world descends on Singapore, one of the region’s leading lights puts a new spin on his acclaimed Venice project, revealing the complex, secret history of the region’s cuisines.
Arin’s installations revisit pivotal moments in Thai history, exploring the layers of detail, accident and innuendo that congeal to form the story of a nation. Golden Teardrop is based on the true story of a traditional Thai egg-yolk dessert, adapted from a recipe that originated with Portuguese nuns in the 15th century. This delicacy was introduced to the Siamese court at Ayutthaya in the 17th century by Maria Guyomar de Pinha, a woman of Japanese, Portuguese and Bengali descent, and the wife of Constantine Phaulkon, the Greek counselor to Siam’s King Narai.
The extraordinary global journey of this poetic form spans five centuries of trade and war, intrigue and espionage, personal tragedies and clashes of civilisation. Moving deftly between political, cultural and individual narratives, Arin’s piece has special resonance in Singapore, whose culinary culture is a product of the same global, mercantile history. Golden Teardrop shows how the fates of people and things, and of nations, are shaped by complex, transnational chains of action, agency and chance.
For his first Asian solo show outside of Thailand, Arin will present the digital video component of Golden Teardrop, along with a new sculptural element conceived specially for Future Perfect. The exhibition will be launched alongside the 4th Singapore Biennale and the long-awaited opening of the Centre for Contemporary Art at Gillman Barracks. A third iteration of Arin’s project will be displayed concurrently as part of the Asian Art Biennale in Taichung, Taiwan.
About the artist
Arin Rungjang (b. 1975, Bangkok) is a contemporary artist based in Bangkok. Since graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Silpakorn University in 2002, he has been recognized as a pioneer of installation practice in Thailand, exhibiting extensively abroad since 2006. Arin belongs to an emerging ‘post-minimalist’ generation of contemporary artists, working at the cutting edge of developments in the art world’s cosmopolitan centres, yet engaging closely with local conditions and histories. His succinct and timely works are grounded in personal experience, and in his country’s complex political and cultural history. His last appearance in Singapore was with an installation commissioned for the Singapore Biennale (2011) at the Old Kallang Airport, an informal trading post where Thai workers living in Singapore could meet and exchange their furniture for brand new items from IKEA. Arin is currently representing Thailand at the 55th Venice Biennale. He has participated in the 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012), the Bandung ‘City Pavilion’ at the Shanghai Biennale (2012) and the Asia Triennial in Manchester, U.K. (2011), and he initiated the collaborative exhibition Far away so close! at Galerie West in Den Haag, The Netherlands. Upcoming exhibitions include the 4th Asian Art Biennale in Taichung, Taiwan and Space Gravity Rebound, a solo show at VER Gallery in Bangkok.
