The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

THAILAND ARAYA RASDJARMREARNSOOK Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook was born in 1957 in Trad, Thailand. She studied at the College of Fine Art, Bangkok in the mid 1970s and later specialised in printmaking at Silpakorn University, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1980 and a Master of Fine Arts in 1986. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook was an art instructor at the College of Fine Art from 1981 to 1987 during which time she participated in an artist's seminar program in Japan. She was appointed to the Faculty of Fine Arts at Chiang Mai University in 1987 where she continues to teach. A further period of postgraduate study in graphic art was undertaken in the period 1988- 90 at the Hochschu le tor Bildende Kunste, Braunschweig, Germany. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook held her first solo exhibition in 1987 at the National Gallery, Bangkok and others have followed in both Thailand and Germany. The artist has par– ticipated in group shows including several National Exhibition of Arts events staged in Bangkok where she was awarded prizes for her print imagery, and the '2nd International Women's Exhibition' organised by the Inter– national Women's Festival, Bangkok, 1992. One of the few women in Thailand to have gained a comparable professional status to her male counterparts, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook began her career specialising in the graphic arts. Intaglio printing was the artist's particular forte and her etchings often conveyed one or several illuminated figures (women) emerging from deep shadow. Large, densely textured paintings of 1991 and 1992 were low-keyed in tone and organised in a grid format. Several were overlaid with text, which was intention– ally obscure. This abstract work was poetic and sensual, suggestive of subtle shifts in mood and emotion. The Australian artist Joan Grounds responded to these strong, introspective statements in the catalogue to the artist's solo exhibition at the National Gallery, Bangkok, 1992: When we come to this work, we have a sense of the possible artistic works and creative past and present whose names are evoked as companions on the solitary journey every artist takes when she or he makes a work. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook's two related works, Girl says, 'There is always the night time' and Three boxes of men and their reflections, demonstrate her departure from imagery which is confined to a single plane. Top Three boxes of men and their reflections 1993 Installation comprising metal boxes, etchings, motor oil 92 x360x 140cm Collection: The artist Her installations investigate the notion of opposing states in cultural awareness and the marginalised position of women in many sectors of society. On Girl says, 'There is always the night time' Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook comments: I can now see the roles of my mother and my grandmother more clearly within the family and I regret that I never asked them whether they could ever make their own decisions and choices ...This work uses memories of former women's roles and can be seen as a statement towards the future - a symbolic female body hanging up high, upside down, reflecting its shadow in a large boat that travels along black waters. On Three boxes of men and their reflec- tions she comments: This was created in the summer of 1993: black metal boxes, open, each consisting of two opposites, divided by a line that separates the box from its cover. It is the line between people in an open space and their shadows... between 47 Bottom Girl says, 'There is always thenight time' 1993 Installation comprising metal boat, motor oil, cloth and 'sa' paper, hair, resin hands 350 x720x60cm Collection: The artist the fighters and the losers; it's the line where one decides whether to live or die ... or, in a Buddhist way, it's the dividing line between knowledge and ignorance, between deliver– ance and attachment; no matter what, the important thing is 'why' we are living. Anne Kirker