MIT JAI INN & SUDSIRI PUI-OCK IN THE 18TH BIENNALE OF SYDNEY (2012)

Mit Jai Inn, No. 112, 2002-12, oil and pigment on canvas, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of Oida Art, Bangkok and the Biennale of Sydney. Photograph: Tinnakorn Nugul.

Following on from their recent participation in Northern Lights at Artereal Gallery in March 2012, Thai artists Mit Jai Inn and Sudsiri Pui-Ock are currently exhibiting as part of the 18th Biennale of Sydney 2012.

Mit Jai Inn is exhibiting a selection of works, currently installed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which hover between painting and sculpture. As an artist he refuses to define his own artistic practice in conventional terms such as painting or sculpture. When his work appears beyond categorisation, the artist has achieved his aim of working towards his vision of ‘eukabeuk’ or nothingness. Mit Jai Inn believes in art as a practice of mediation and collaboration. Using oil paint with pigments, the artist creates multi-layered and multi-coloured abstract works on canvas. Mit Jai Inn then leaves the composition or arrangement of the works to others, to facilitate a literal participation in a colorful co-composition. 

For Mit the use of ‘painting’ as a way of communicating his personal views on art and life, as well as the social and political implications of making art, are all key aspects of his practice. Mit has also been a pioneer in the development of the Chiang Mai contemporary art scene. He was involved with the Land Foundation project and was the founder of the Chiang Mai Social Installation (CMSI). Mit is an active commentator on the current political situation in Thailand and has been internationally active over the past thirty years.

Sudsiri Pui-Ock is currently exhibiting three video works at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Sudsiri’s practice is multifaceted and involves working across material processes (such as printmaking, drawing, painting, sculpture, video, interactive, internet) to develop her philosophical concepts on life and the existence of lives. Her video works are often characterised by a quest for a peaceful and sustainable life and the slowing down of time.

Pui-Ock’s film The Street of Two Birds (2006) is one of the artist’s most striking video works – a homage to people killed along the busy roads of Japan. Her other featured works include Farmer (2009), which was shot within rice fields while being simultaneously mystic and realistic, and Tatami Room (2006) addressing the themes of water and land. 

Sudsiri has undertaken various Artist-in-Residency programmes such as the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands from 2004-2005, ARCUS Project, Moriya Japan in 2006, Jerusalem Center for the Visual Arts, Israel in 2007. She has held many solo exhibiitons since 2000 and has participated in many important group exhibitions such as Yokohama Triennale, Japan, 2011, theThai Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale, Italy, 2009 and Incheon Women Artists Biennale, Korea, 2009.

Recent works by Mit Jai Inn can currently be viewed in the Artereal Gallery Stockroom.