| EXHIBITION |
Group
The Hunters
Maryanto and Ruangsak Anuwatwimon
Exhibition Opening| The Hunters ( a Pollination project)
Featuring artists Maryanto (Yogyakarta) and Ruangsak Anuwatwimon (Bangkok). Curated by ‘Pollination’ curators LIR (Yogyakarta) and Kittima Chareeprasit (Chiang Mai)
Opening reception: 19 March, 2020 | Walkthrough with curators 6 PM MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Organized by : The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City
Co-sponsored by SAM Art & Ecology Fund and MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum
With thanks to this edition’s curatorial advisors: Agung Jennong and Vipash Purichanont and Zoe Butt
‘The Hunters’ is an exhibition resulting from extensive collaborative research undertaken over the last 12 months beneath the volcanic activity of Mount Merapi, Yogyakarta; and along the increasingly dammed river routes of the lower Mekong, on the borders between Thailand and Laos. Prompted by the artistic languages and methods of chosen artists Maryanto and Ruangsak, Pollination curators LIR and Kittima have curated an exhibition where the practice of sustainable living provokes need of respect for the interdependent wisdom between the human and non-human worlds, evident in local forms of wisdom (or what the curators define as an ‘embodied’ knowledge).
Hosted by the MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai, both artists are creating new bodies of work, inspired by local folk-lore which share the lives of particular mythical ‘hunter’, comparing the ethos of such stories to our contemporary moment. Maryanto’s tent-like installations, composed of paintings in charcoal and earth, share local knowledge of living with respect for Nature and its spirits, concerned by the impact of illegal, corporate and government hunting of water and sand, beneath Mount Merapi (Maryanto’s home turf). Ruangsak’s varied installations beg acknowledgement of the many animals whose lives are jeopardized along the heavy damming of the Mekong, creating various diorama from their bones as monument to their spirits that once guarded this crucial waterway. Such projects are but the beginning of what will be presented, ultimately throwing into question the assumptions and illusions of resource and their landscape, critical of social reliance on instruments of science and technology, deeply aware of how their manipulation leads to ignorance, misinformation and greed.
As Maryanto and Ruangsak are compelled by the realities faced by local peoples living with such exploitation, the curators thus also intend to showcase the artistic research of each artist (photographic and film documentation; sketches, sound recordings and more), alongside a dedicated video interview between the artists unpacking their relationship to the idea of the ‘hunter’ and how this unveils in their respective artistic practices.
About Artist
Maryanto (b.1977, Indonesia) creates evocative, black and white paintings, drawings, and installations that undermine the romantic language of traditional landscape painting to examine socio-political structures in the physical sites that he situates his works. Through fable-like and theatrical settings, these landscapes are subjected to the whim of colonizers and capitalists through technological development, industrialization, pollution of the land and exploitation of its natural resources. Maryanto graduated from the Faculty of Fine Art, Indonesia Institute of the Art, Yogyakarta in 2005, and completed a residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in 2013. Recent notable exhibitions include ‘Permanent Osmosis’, LIR Space, Yogyakarta (2019, solo); ‘A Journey of Forking Paths’, Yeo Workshop, Singapore (2019, solo); ‘On the Shoulders of Fallen Giants: 2nd Industrial Art Biennial’, Labin, Croatia (2018); ‘Behind the Terrain’, Koganei Art Spot Chateau, Tokyo (2018). Maryanto was born in Jakarta. He now lives and works in Yogyakarta.
Ruangsak Anuwatwimon (b.1975, Bangkok) is driven and inspired by political issues and social situations that he has experienced in his own life. His artistic practice investigates the protagonist relationship humans have with the natural world. Employing diverse media which challenge the perimeters of what constitutes an ‘artwork’, Ruangsak’s conceptual projects explore the social, cultural, and moral grounds of human societies. Notable recent projects include ‘Monstrous Phenomenon’, 1Projects, Bangkok (2019, solo); ‘Temporal Topography: MAIIAM New Acquisitions from 2010 to Present’, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiang Mai (2019/2020); ‘Every Step in the Right Direction – Singapore Biennale’ 2019, Singapore (2019); ‘Post-Nature – A Museum as an Ecosystem: 11th Taipei Biennial’, Taipei (2018). In 2020, Ruangsak will participate in the Bangkok Art Biennale.
About Curator
LIR (Yogyakarta) is an art institution cum curator collective consisting of Mira Asriningtyas (b. 1986. based in Yogyakarta) and Dito Yuwono (b. 1985. based in Yogyakarta). Since 2011, LIR’s program ranges from exhibition laboratories and research-based art projects to public programs, residencies, and alternative art education platforms. LIR’s projects are characterized by multidisciplinary collaboration and often performative exhibitions; fostering continuous transgenerational transmission of knowledge, memory, and history. LIR’s most recent projects including “Curated by LIR” exhibition series (KKF – Yogyakarta, 2018 – 2020); “Transient Museum of a Thousand Conversations” (ISCP – New York, 2020); and “900mdpl” (Kaliurang – 2017, 2019, & 2021), a long-term site-specific project in Kaliurang, Indonesia—an aging resort village under an active volcano—with the aim of preserving collective memory of the space.
Kittima Chareeprasit (b.1989, Mahasarakham, lives and works in Chiangmai) received her MA in Curating and Collections from Chelsea College of Arts (UK). She is a curator from MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In 2016, she co-founded the experimental workshop and art publisher studio ‘Waiting You Curator Lab’. Her interest lies in contemporary art and culture, which revolves around critical history, social and political issues, specifically of Thailand and Southeast Asia. She works across various platforms and projects with academics, artists, institutions and art spaces from diverse backgrounds.
Her. recent curatorial work includes House Calls: Pinaree Sanpitak at 100 Tonson Foundation (2020) Breast Stupa Cookery: the world turns upside down at Nova Contemporary (2020), Temporal Topography: MAIIAM’s New Acquisitions; from 2010 to Present at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (2019), In search of other times: reminiscence of things collected, at JWD Art Space Bangkok (2019), Occasionally Utility at Gallery VER, Bangkok (2017), The Thing That Takes Us Apart at Gallery Seescape, Chiang Mai (2017)
Installation View
