Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook Quotes

Thailand, Artist
July 26, 1957

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook is a Thai artist who works primarily with film and video. She lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand. She represented Thailand at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005), and exhibited at dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel, 2012. In January 2015 her first retrospective in the United States opened at SculptureCenter, New York.

In academic circles, especially, I was criticized for lacking morals, values, and ethics. I'm feeding that angry feminist reading of my work.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
- Work
- Feminist
- Ethics
What is difficult is to keep the sweet voice with an aggressive message.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
- Voice
- Message
- Aggressive

I extol life so much that I cannot make art.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
- Life
- Art
- Extol
It is interesting to ask why people who come to view art suddenly posture themselves as full of righteousness. It's as if my artwork suddenly lends a higher moral ground to everyone else in the Thai art world.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
I eventually shifted to video. Video opened up new conditions, or freed me from old conditions.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
- Conditions
- Video
- Freed
Women in Thai society have been placed in the space of the home. It is possible that women have assuredly taken up that place without thinking too critically about it.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
- Women
- Home
- Society
Thai society rarely attempts to control literature in the same way that it vigilantly polices visual art. It's ironic because people in this society are more aware of literature than they are of art.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
- Art
- Society
- Literature
There might just be a universal expectation to respect the dead, but my work is also born from another aspect of Thai society - that is, the overemphasis on familial bonds.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook

My art practice eventually arrived at a point where I had freedom from various limiting conditions; the institutional mindset is not airtight and isn't altogether ideologically programmed. There are ways of escaping.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
- Art
- Freedom
- Practice
It's surprising that readers don't see challenging writing as morally hazardous, when it might be pushing the same kinds of boundaries as art does.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook