Maryanto at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum

Congratulations to Maryanto for his participation in a two-person at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (Chiang Mai) with #RuangsakAnuwatwimon from Bangkok.

‘The Hunters’ is the resulting exhibition of the third edition of ‘Pollination’. This two-person exhibition concludes an extensive collaborative research undertaken in the last 12 months beneath Mount Merapi, Yogyakarta, and along the river routes of the lower Mekong, on the borders between Thailand and Laos. Prompted by the artistic languages and methods of chosen artists Maryanto and Ruangsak, ‘Pollination’ curators LIR and Kittima have curated ‘The Hunters’. Hosted by the MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai, both artists are creating new bodies of work, inspired by local folk-lore which share the lives of particular mythical ‘hunter’, comparing the ethos of their stories to our contemporary moment. Maryanto’s tent-like installations, composed of paintings in charcoal and earth, share local knowledge of living with respect for Nature and its spirits, concerned by the impact of illegal, corporate and government hunting of water and sand, beneath Mount Merapi (Maryanto’s home turf). Ruangsak’s varied installations beg acknowledgement of the many animals whose lives are jeopardized along the heavy damming of the Mekong, creating various diorama from their bones as monument to their spirits that once guarded this crucial waterway. Such projects are but the beginning of what will be presented, ultimately throwing into question the assumptions and illusions of resource and their landscape, critical of social reliance on instruments of science and technology, deeply aware of how their manipulation leads to ignorance, misinformation and greed.

‘The Hunters’
Opening: March 19 2021
Venue: MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum @maiiam_art_museum(Chiang Mai)
Featuring artists: Maryanto (Yogyakarta) and Ruangsak Anuwatwimon (Bangkok)
Curated by: LIR (Yogyakarta) and Kittima Chareeprasit (Chiang Mai)
Organized by: The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre @factorysaigon (Ho Chi Minh City)
Co-sponsored by: SAM Fund for Arts & Ecology and MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum