Jump to content

"Rirkrit Tiravanija: (who’s afraid of red, yellow, and green)" (May 17–Jul 24, 2019). Hirshhorn Museum


Tweaked

Recommended Posts

Art world and food world collide at Rirkit Tiravanija's exhibit at the Hirshhorn.

Rirkrit Tiravanija: (who’s afraid of red, yellow, and green)

On view May 17 through July 24, 2019

"Rirkrit Tiravanija: (who’s afraid of red, yellow, and green) will be the Hirshhorn’s first-ever exhibition of works by contemporary Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. Organized by Mark Beasley, the museum’s Robert and Arlene Kogod Secretarial Scholar, Curator of Media and Performance Art, the exhibition will transform the Hirshhorn’s galleries into a communal dining space in which visitors will be served curry and invited to share a meal together. The installation includes a large-scale mural, drawn on the walls over the course of the exhibition, which references protests against Thai government policies. Additional historic images speak to protest and the present. The exhibition will also include a series of documentary shorts curated exclusively for the Hirshhorn by Thailand’s leading independent filmmaker and Palme d’Or prize-winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul in collaboration with the artist. On view May 17–July 24, Tiravanija’s presentation unites his signature communal food-based work with his ongoing series of drawings derived from protest imagery, creating a unique dialogue within a single installation.

The culinary component of the exhibition will occur Thursday–Sunday, 11:45 am–1:30 pm or until supplies last, every week during the run of the exhibition.

Tiravanija’s long and varied career defies classification. For nearly 30 years, his artistic production has focused on real-time experience and exchange, breaking down the barriers between object and spectator. The title of Tiravanija’s culinary installation, which will be presented at the Hirshhorn for the first time since it entered the museum’s collection in 2017, (who’s afraid of red, yellow, and green), refers to the colors worn by the various factions in recent Thai government protests. The title also refers to the 1982 vandalism of Barnett Newman’s similarly titled painting in Berlin, which was motivated by the attacker’s belief that Newman’s painting was a “perversion” of the German flag. To soften Newman’s provocative title, Tiravanija uses parentheses and lowercase letters, suggesting that viewers answer the question as framed: “Who is afraid of what these colors symbolize?”

Tiravanija’s unorthodox work first came to public view in a 1989 New York group show that included “Untitled Empty Parenthesis,” which consisted of the remains of a green curry meal. He continued to challenge the possibilities of the gallery space, eventually co-opting it as a site for the preparation and consumption of communal meals for gallery-goers as in “Untitled (Free)” (1992), and even going so far as to invite people to live within the gallery in “Untitled” (1999), which was an exact replica of his East Village apartment. Tiravanija’s interest lies in a desire to subvert deeply ingrained ways of interacting with art. By seeking alternative experiences of time, Tiravanija opens the door for novel forms of collaboration and exchange by diminishing the preciousness of objects through a reconsideration of their life cycle and function."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was lucky enough to attend Rirkrit's artist talk and opening last night.  An interesting guy and an interesting show. 

Several of the gallery assistants were on site drawing on the walls.  Images, mostly taken from newspaper coverage of political events, are projected on the wall which the assistants broadly copy and then work off photos to fill in the details.  The images range from political protests in Thailand to images of rallies held on the National Mall (suffragette movement, Million Man March, the Women's March etc.).  Over the course of the show the walls will be continually drawn upon and then drawn on top of, filling in all the spaces.  Plus Thai curry!

There are also two movies running in an adjoining room, which we didn't have a chance to see.  

Rirkrit2.jpg

Rirkrit1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...