apichatpong weerasethakul
apichatpong weerasethakul
Installation view of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Acoustic Birds (for TITAN), New York City, June 12– July 4, 2021
Image courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York
Photo: Daniel Terna
kurimanzutto announces Acoustic Birds (for TITAN) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, as the fourth intervention within the TITAN´s solo project series. Composed as a tripytch of three panels, Acoustic Birds portrays three colorful birds, as they alight on the ledges of perforated acoustic panels, which are often used to dampen and absorb noise. Balanced on the broken panels, in conversation with each other, the birds gaze through the interior of the phone booth, encountering the secret spaces within.
Acoustic Birds (for TITAN) poses a poetic commentary on the phone booth, a decayed communication automaton from a previous world, transformed into a resting perch for inquisitive birds. Creating a contrast between the industrial, man-made booth and the natural world, the story within the triptych suggests an unexplained, mysterious energy. Weerasethakul is known for creating bridges between reality and fiction and merging the artificial with the natural in harmonious simplicity. For TITAN, Weerasethakul intervenes with the original function of the pay phone, transforming it into an oddity that discreetly stands in the middle of everyday life in the city.
Working in the space between cinema and contemporary art, Apichatpong Weerasethakul creates installations, videos, short and feature films that are often non-linear and transmit a strong sense of dislocation and otherworldliness. In 1994, Weerasethakul earned his BA in architecture from Khon Kaen University in Thailand. In 1998, he received his MFA in Filmmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as an Honorary Doctorate from the same institution in 2011. In 1999, he co-founded Kick the Machine Films, a company that has produced many of his own films as well as other experimental Thai films and videos that could not find support under the established Thai film industry. Apichatpong Weerasethakul lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand and is represented by Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London; Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong; SCAI the Bathhouse, Tokyo; Seescape, Chiang Mai; ShanghART, Shanghai; and kurimanzutto Mexico City / New York.
Installation view of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Acoustic Birds (for TITAN), New York City, June 12– July 4, 2021
Image courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York
Photo: Daniel Te