Racharudee (Zhu Clan) is a stack of blank paper created out of destruction. The artist destroyed her family ancestral book from the Zhu Clan in China dating back to the 13th century. When her father passed on, there was no one left who could read Chinese, and her link to ancestral China was severed.

Wantanee proceeded to pulp the pages to create a new book. This sheer act of iconoclasm — to erase your past — is a paean to both life and death. Tellingly, the violence can only come from a sense of rootlessness, of being without memory and history. For Wantanee, it is in her complex identity as part of the Chinese diaspora.

For Bussorah Street, one can argue its transformation from a once thriving community into a palm tree-lined tourist attraction, is just as violent and iconoclastic.

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Wantanee Siripattananuntakul (b.1974, Thailand) grounds her work in social, political, economic, and ecological issues from which she questions the meaning of life. Each project often consists of different media, such as video, sound, sculptures, and installations, associating social and economic inequality and ideological state apparatus.

She has presented her work worldwide in institutions such as Museo MACRO, Argentina; the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Korea; and National Gallery Singapore. She has also participated in exhibitions including the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009) and Tokyo Biennale (2023). Featured in Frieze London's 20th-anniversary celebration's “Artist to Artist” section, Wantanee's pieces are now showcased at the Thailand Biennale (2023-2024). Her works are collected by governmental and private institutions in Thailand, including the Culture Ministry and MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Artist: 
Wantanee Siripattananuntakul

Handmade paper in acrylic box
60 x 60 x 21 cm