I am back to MoMA PS1 (not because I have to change three trains to get here). But! Because of a young Thai artist whose name I can hardly pronounce. Korakrit Arunanondchai was raised in Bangkok and is headed to take over the art world armed with a wealth of color and abstraction. It is his first individual museum show 2012 – 2555 (2555 is the year 2012 according to the Buddhist Calendar). Mr. Arunanondchai seems high on music, history and culture for he doesn’t employ empty sentences. He, however, uses a wide range of social relationships as a subject matter.
From his family to collaborations with ex-go-go dancers performing artists. His harmony of abstraction comes close to the very edge of avant-garde, employing color splashes, fire, body prints, denims (for using brush is a thing of the past). The past is quite present in his work. In the end we all live in the past (solving it as we go), feeding on memories and bended bits of information. The past is always in vogue and unpredictable. It is incarnated in art. As this show is a perfect example of it, it is not the art itself that defines contemporary thought as such, it is the process, it is the burden of dreams aggressively dancing on the canvas, expressing the avid unique personality of the artist.
It is the near perfect imitation of life that drives us to art museums. We need reminders that life is mostly beautiful. We need colorful metaphors, poems, songs, dances (or in this case body prints) on the canvas solacing our hard working minds. This near perfect expression of time and us in it, though material in itself, resembles eternity for its end could not be clearly perceived. I am taking the trains back in time (I still can not afford to buy PS1, may be next week). But even a visit gives me enough of a push. On my way back I will buy a few buckets of paint and map my life on my walls. Then (of course) take a selfie with it. La grande bellezza!
