Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook

b. 1957, Thailand

My art and I flow between being great in our private space and time and feeling more ordinary elsewhere. This reminds me of the time when father, mother, table, bed, window and door were so very big when I was quite young. One day, in the afternoon, I walked across a small street which passes my house. The street seemed so crowded at the time for a little girl. After that experience, I realised that some things in my house were smaller than I had thought.

In my own environment, my art and I are large and great. In contrast, my art and I seem small in the art world. It is comforting to have a friend, my art, to be small with me in the fast-moving multiple spaces of the art world.

‘A part of a female corpse rests quietly in the two-dimensional video space, with water gently pouring over her. This action creates an internal conversation within the video that can not be disturbed. But the work has a desire for more than its internal conversation. It must accept the challenge to go into the real present space, which makes it feel smaller.’

It is not so easy to tell the truth about simplicity in the form of smallness.

(Text: heroes + holies catalogue, 2002)