Navin Rawanchaikul

The Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to present a new installation by Navin Rawanchaikul, one of Thailand's most innovative young artists. He has exhibited internationally and participated in this year's Havana Bienal in Cuba and the Kwangju Biennale in Korea. This will be his first solo exhibition in Canada. Rawanchaikul is arriving in Vancouver with three colleagues who have never before been outside of Thailand.

Navin Rawanchaikul and his gang are presenting a project that utilizes dried rush mats which are traditional to northern Thailand. As a means to inspire a dialogue of understanding between two countries that are geographically and culturally different, and to blend together art and life, Rawanchaikul and his gang have set up these mats as portable meeting places in numerous public locations around Vancouver and in schools, community centres and galleries. The discussions and interactions between the artists and the public have been recorded on videotape and are presented in the gallery on monitors placed among an arrangement of 800 mats that the public may sit on to view the videos. Visitors to the gallery are invited to take a mat away with them to be used in the spirit of the interactions on the video. There will be a comic book, Navin and His Gang (Visit) Vancouver, that can also be taken away by visitors. This comic book illustrates a story of how Navin and his gang happened to come to Vancouver.

Rawanchaikul's work often facilitates the participation of individuals who are not normally involved in the art making process by directly interfacing with local communities and the public. While acknowledging that many museums have lost their ability to connect with the public at large, Rawanchaikul's projects are not solely a critique of the institution. He sees a role for art in both public places and museums, and is exploring new ways of engaging the public with ideas of what constitutes art and the places in which it is sited.

This exhibition has been funded by the Government of Canada through Canada's Year of Asia Pacific.