Article

| 25 May 2009

Rirkrit Tiravanija
UNTITLED, 2009 (PAY ATTENTION)
Commissioned by ARTSPACE for ONE DAY SCULPTURE TODAY

Rirkrit Tiravanija¹s project for One Day Sculpture is the only project in the series to take place in the open-ended time period of TODAY.¹ The artist suggests we pay attention to everyday details that we might ordinarily overlook, (in this case the flat reflective orange road signs at pedestrian crossings). Rirkrit's work activates these objects as an artwork nationwide on Monday the 25th of May, for the period of TODAY. The work exists as a postcard that travels by post to a nationwide audience.

A renowned international artist,Tiravanija is often described as a nomadic, he was born in Argentina yet calls New York and Chiangmai home. As a traveller he requires constant flexibility to negotiate between cultures. It is in the promise and potential of a journey that his work dwells, with an emphasis on process and who he meets along the way. His approach conveys a sense of expansion, a proposition for which the outcome is unknown.

ARTSPACE has comissioned two artist projects by Rirkrit Tiravaija and SUPERFLEX which are happening this week in Auckland. These two works are the last Auckland projects for the nationwide One Day Sculpture series of 21 temporary public artworks by national and international artists. Claire Doherty, Curatorial Director of One Day Sculpture says,

"Superflex and Tiravanija's projects provide an inspirational conclusion to Auckland's contribution to the One Day Sculpture series, opening up the question of who the public for public art really is and how it might change our perceptions of the world around us through the seemingly simple interruption of everyday activities."

Rirkrit Tiravanija was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1961. He studied at the Ontario School of Art in Toronto, the Banff Center School of Fine Arts, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Whitney Independent Studies Program in New York. He has developed significant projects for the Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Sydney Biennale and Venice Biennale, to name but a few from an extensive list of group, and one-person shows in Asia, Europe, and North America. He lives and works in New York and Chiangmai.