Tales of Navin 2

Navin Rawanchaikul’s (Thailand b.1971) expansive approach to art encompasses a range of media and narrative devices to create a rich universe of interconnected stories, people and communities. With a focus on collaboration and social engagement, Rawanchaikul explores the relationship between local circumstances and globalisation.

Rawanchaikul first visited Australia to assist Thai artists Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook and Montien Boonma for ‘The First Asia Pacific Triennial’ in 1993. He then returned as an exhibiting artist for APT2 in 1996. In 1995 he set up Navin Production, an art production company that emphasises the collaborative and social possibilities of cultural production. The ‘Tales of Navin’ series was created to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of Navin Production, part of a series of exhibitions and celebrations at three locations in Chiang Mai. The series takes the form of the artist’s characteristic poster-like figurative panoramas that depict a myriad of self-portraits of characters he has enacted throughout his career, woven in with a narrative reflecting his own death. The suite of paintings are accompanied by a letter Navin has written to himself that contemplates the building of his new studio in Chiang Mai, visits to his family in Japan, and the death of his mentor Montien Boonma.

Exhibited in 'The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' (APT8) | 21 Nov 2015 – 10 Apr 2016