I Am An Artist (He Said)

“To be an artist is … just like shit in a clogged toilet, stubborn shit that can’t decide whether it wants to be flushed or to stick around” writes acclaimed artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. Composed as an irreverent dialogue between masculine and feminine narrators, this book of essays is an uncategorisable fusion of art criticism, feminist theory, art pedagogy, gossip and autofiction. It is also an invaluable insider account of Southeast Asia’s contemporary artists being catapulted into international circuits since the 1990s. Araya’s provocative prose is lyrically translated from Thai for the first time by Kong Rithdee, one of Thailand’s most influential cultural critics.

This is the first title in the National Gallery Singapore’s “Art Writing” imprint. This new, peer-reviewed imprint celebrates the diverse voices and genres of writing that create the discourse of art in Southeast Asia, both historically and in the present. Going beyond conventional art history, books in this imprint include compilations of artist writings, art criticism and experimental approaches to the image.

Publisher: National Gallery Singapore
Author Biography: ARAYA RASDJARMREARNSOOK is an internationally acclaimed contemporary artist, best known for an iconic series of video artworks in which she performs a ‘dialogue’ with human corpses. She began exhibiting her artworks in Thailand in 1979, winning several national prizes during the 1980s for her sombre printmaking. During the 1990s, she started working in sculpture, installation and moving images. Her artworks have consistently engaged with death, desire and the relationships between image and text and between humans and non-human animals. She has held more than 25 solo exhibitions in prestigious museums and galleries internationally, and has participated in dozens of important group exhibitions in more than 20 countries, including the Venice Biennale, Documenta and the Asia Pacific Triennial. Araya’s writing has been just as prolific, and although hitherto little-known in the anglosphere, it is as a writer that Araya is perhaps best-known within Thailand, where she lives and works. She is also Professor at Chiang Mai University.
Language: English
Country of Origin: Singapore
Page count: 496
Binding: Paperback
Search words: Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Thai art, artist's writings, art criticism, feminist theory, art pedagogy, autofiction, contemporary art, Southeast Asian art