Thai's research on Rirkit Tiravanija and El Anatusi

RIRKIT TIRAVANIJA

(Born 1961 and still active in the present day)

General Biography

Rirkirt Tiravanija, (Thai: ฤกษ์ฤทธิ์ ตีระวนิชม pronunciation: [ruuk-rit tira-wani]), a few very successful and internationally renowned Thai contemporary artist in foreign country. He was born in Buenos Aires, Agentina, in 1961; to a son of Thai diplomat and oral surgeon. He is a Thai-based artist, who currently residing and working in New York, Berlin, and Chiang Mai (Northern  provience of Thailand).

Education Background

• Carleton University, major in history Ontario College of Art (1980-1984) 
• Banff Center School of Fine Art (1984) 
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1984-1986) 
• Whitney Independent Studies Program in New York (1985-1986)

Relaitonal Art

Most of his works are called relational aesthic, or relational art, which is a form of art which involve the audience into the artwork and the reaction and interaction of these people itself become a work of art. It is the a type of artwork that destroyed the boundaries between artworks, audiences/participants, and the artistis; which give them change to closely interact with each other in a very casual way.

"...a set of artistic partices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relation and their social context, rather thatn an independent and private space."

--Nicolas Bourriaud, the developer of relational art

Works, Exhibition, and Eroticness within Artworks

His installation often take form of a stages/room for sharing meal, reading of playing music; or an architecture/structures for living and socializing; which is the main concept and context of his works, bring and joing people together. His works are mainly based on the interaction and exchange--idea, argument, feeling, etc.--among the participants.

"It is not what you see that is important but what take place between people..."

"The situation is not about looking at art. It about being in the space, and being able to participate to an activity..."

--Rirkit Tiravnija

Untitled 1992, (Free/Still): The casualness of the space spark the warm and secure feeling of the visitor, which they would feel more intimate to unexpected contact.

To put it simpler, he trying to shift the nature of how the visitors visit the museum/gallery, which considers to be semi-private space; where there aren't many interacteion between people and each of them seem to have their own private personal space. His mean is to bring in common activities, such as cooking, eating, sleeping, and other everyday activities, into the space; which result in turning the semi-private space within the gallery into a social space, where the visitors feel more intimate and casual--which provoke an unexpected contact and interaction between strangers. The eroticness within is his artwork are the sense of intimacy which could spark the moment of contact and interaction between people, which bring them closer to each others.

Untitle 1996, (Tomorrow is Another Day): The replica of Rirkit's apartment in New York, where he allows the participant to do any activity with in this particular space--eating, sleeping, taking shower, party, etc.

Who scred of Red, Yellow, and Green (2010): Providing a common with space to the participants to exhibit their idea toward to political problem in Thai at that moment--add the sense of casualty of the space by serving free food, in this case red, yellow, and green thai curry; which also act as a symoblic representation to the fight between the red, yellow, and blue shirts at that moment.

It could be said that the other erotic part of his works is the exhibiton or the revealing of  what each participants are thinking--similarly to the revealing of their secrets of the others people around them. It's due to these actions of exchanging and interaction between each others in an intimate ways that bring people closer and joining them together in a more erotic way.


EL ANATSUI
(Born 1944 still active in the present day)
 

General Biography

El Anatsui, born in Anyako, Nigeria, in 1944, is a Ghanaian sculptor, who was much active for his career in Nigeria. He is a scupltor who specialized in creating wood and clay sculptures; however, they were very well known to the outsider.

However, recently, he has became a world renowed artists through his new form of art sculptures, which were created from recycle materials, such as aluminums bottle lid and discared metal objects....

Educational Background

• Kumasi College of Art
• Kumasi University of Science and Technology

Recycle Art Sculpture--Materials and its Context

"Art grows out of each particular situation, and I believe that artists are better off working with whatever their environment throw up."

--El Anatusi

Most of his recents artworks often resemble the woven cloths, such as "kente cloth", which are the local cloth within Nigeria. These art sculptures are made out of throw away object and recycle materials--normally  aluminium bottle lid and discarded metals.

His works are often rich in its context about cultural, social, and economy of the historise and modern Wes Africa, as he said in one of his interview, "...the bottle lid was brought from the Europe, by using this materials as part of my works ,it show our relationship with the European and the civilization they have brought to us in the history...".

 Artworks, Sculptures, and Eroticness

Grace and Gravity: The sculpture come in the form of the woven cloth, which is flexible and changeable through time; which give the sculpture the ability to change and adapted to particular space everytime it was putted on display.

He, El Anatusi, see art work as similar to human life which change over the course of time; therefore, he also give his artwork ability to change through time everytime it was installed and put on display. Similarly to the act of eroticness, which form and act of seduction, alluring people in to touch to see, change through the course of time and try of people who are watching.

As it was mentioned eariler, that his work often rich in its context; however, most of the time these context and meaning are very ambiguous to the audiences. 

Gli: The word gli mean both wall and disrupted in the Ghanaian language, which give the artwork the idea of free interpretation about the meaning of the artwork itself; also due to the fact that this piece of artwork literaly mean wall and look like a wall; yet, it seem to be transparent but still disrupted.

Similarly to the work erotic, which the word itself seem ambiguous and dark; yet it provoke our curiousity and desire to know, to touch, to feel, and to interprete what it mean. This can also be seen in the material he used and from the point of view the audience look a his artwork--from a far they seem like a normal woven cloth, but at a closer look they transformed into something unexpected and contradicted to our imagination.