Korakrit Arunanondchai

Private Collection (acquired from the artist)

“I like the idea of denim being used in fashion as something that people wear to say they are individual, whereas in fact everyone looks the same. There's something democratic about it as a material.”

-Korakrit Arunanondchai

Bangkok-raised artist Korakrit Arunanondchai engages a myriad of subjects encompassing history, globalization and animism through his multidisciplinary oeuvre. Seeking to bridge the gap between his art practice in New York City and the context and belief system that formed his upbringing in Bangkok, Thailand. The artist started the project "Painting with history in a room filled with people with funny names" in the year 2012. Denim is the foundation of the artist's practice and project, starting with the avatar of the denim painter making denim paintings, "Painting with history in a room filled with people with funny names" builds itself over ten years and multiple episodes to become a practice in storytelling through different forms and mediums including video installations, sculptures and paintings. Denim for the artist shares the same trajectory as canvas which, through forces of globalization, became a ubiquitous global material. Unlike canvas which stands as a foundation to the discourse of Western Painting, denim becomes more of an entry point into global labor and trade systems.