2022_Venue Rental Deck_39+ Art Space

Mit Jai Inn Paphonsak La-or’s Prospects



Mit Jai Inn was born in 1960 in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. He is a member of ethnic minority called the ‘Yong’. Mit became a novice monk at Djittabhawan Buddhist College, Pattaya from 1970 – 76. He began his artistic training in 1983 at Silpakorn University in Bangkok. Leaving for Europe in 1986, he enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts’ programme at Angewandte Kunst Wien, in 1988. There, he worked as a studio assistant of Franz West from 1988 – 92. Returning to Thailand in 1992, he and several other artists co-founded the Chiang Mai Social Installation (CMSI). The fourth and final edition of CMSI, Mit launched the Week of Cooperative Suffering to focus on public engagement activities. Over the past two decades, his work has been shown in artist initiatives, museums, galleries, and large-scale exhibitions, including the Yokohama Triennale (2005); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2007), REDCAT, Los Angeles (2007), Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (2011), Singapore Art Museum (2014), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2017), Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (2019), Museum MACAN, Jakarta, (2019), IKON Gallery, London (2021) and at the 18th and 21st editions of the Biennale of Sydney (2012 and 2018). In 2015, Mit founded Cartel Artspace in Bangkok for artists and curators to reflect on the historical and current context of Thailand and Southeast Asia. Mit lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Tunnel One of Thailand’s most forefront artists, Mit Jai Inn is well-known for his large-scale abstract paintings that appear to envelop the audiences in the canvas. Most of his works come in bright colors with unique textures created by thick piles of paints. In the Paphonsak La-or’s Prospects exhibition, Mit, however, created a different kind of artwork: an installation artwork where a series of paintings is strung together to form a giant tunnel over 12 meters long that invites the audiences to walk through and interact with the works through touch. The tunnel features an outer surface depicting a landscape of the twilight sky as the sun sets, with an orange glow spreading over the canvas as darkness begins to creep in, and an inner surface portraying the opposite, a landscape of the dawning sky with the sun softly shining across the canvas. Windows were cut at regular intervals along the walkway to invite the audiences to push them open, or leave them ajar, to take a glimpse of what is on the outside of the tunnel. As you walk down to the end of the tunnel, you will find a large painting that acts as a partition. Its front delineates the last rays of light at dusk, dotted with dozens of suns strewn throughout the canvas, while its back outlines the first rays of light at dawn.



Installation view of Tunnel, 2021



Tunnel 2021 Oil on Canvas 12 x 4 m USD 255,000



Interior view of Tunnel, 2021



12 Paintings In the small exhibition room, there is another lineup of 12 paintings of twilight scenes from 12 countries where Thai political refugees seek asylum. These works are sequenced according to the time zones, starting from Japan and progressing eastward across the globe before finishing in Thailand. The collection on the left wall mirrors the sunrise, while the collection on the right wall reflects the sunset. The collection on the center wall, which represents the daytime, bridges the two times. Each piece has a small square painting placed on top of them, which the artist refers to as windows. Some have only one, while others have three. Each window displays a moment in contrast to its background; For example, if that piece depicts the dawn, its window portrays the dusk, so that when you open the window you can see the sky in the daytime, which gives the impression of alternating between different times. For the artist, when looking at the sky at dawn and dusk, he found them so similar that they are almost indistinguishable, to the point that it can be misunderstood that the polar opposites are one and the same. He utilized the artistic process to make these two periods clearly separated. On the surface, this exhibition may seem to be nothing more than a mere collection of landscape paintings with a semi-abstract style that deviates from the artist’s usual practice; nonetheless, it is a reflection of the current state of Thai politics as a result of the ongoing Thai political crisis since 2005. A crisis brought about by the clash of principles and ideologies between the establishment, which consists of a network of capitalists, military institutions, and monarchy that try to maintain their grip on power, and newer generations and democrats championing rights, liberties, and equality. Over the past ten years, there has been a multitude of people calling out for justice, with some of them ending up being subjected to forced disappearance, some classified as prisoners of conscience, and some requesting political asylum. The present Thai political scenario, which is still unknown and uncertain, making it unable to transition or move forward, can be likened to the sky in the transitional period in this series. It may still be indistinguishable, but when the time comes, the old sun must retire from the sky, and the new sun will rule over it.

This exhibition was named in dedication to Paphonsak La-or, a Thai artist who consistently creates artworks that address political issues in Thailand, particularly with the Far from Home series, which bore out the plight and feelings of political refugees who were forced to leave their homeland to live abroad simply because they held opposing political views to the conservatives. Mit also named the exhibition’s protagonist Paphonsak in the hope that the works in this exhibition would serve as a backdrop for the narrative that reflects Paphonsak’s and refugees’ prospects on Thailand’s present political predicament. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of works in this series will be donated to support democracy in Thailand and the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), as well as to support the space for new-generation artists to exhibit their work. Excerpts by Kittima Chareeprasit.

Installation view of Aotearoa, Kanata, U.S., Brit, Francais, Deutsch, Sevrige, Suomi, 2021



Nihon 2021 Oil on Canvas 5 x 122 x 180 cm USD 28,000