Surasi Kusolwong

1 Pound Suitcase Market (Come on Cornwall)
Tate St Ives

1 Pound Open-Air Market (Come on Cornwall)
Public Realm: outside The Exchange

Surasi Kusolwong playfully fuses installation and performance to reflect modern consumer lifestyles and creates ironic reflections of the modern consumer society. Through his sculptural environments, participatory events and performances, Kusolwong blends elements of both western and eastern cultural traditions, in ways that gently question our preconceptions, particularly of Asian culture. The act of ‘hospitality’ underpins his practice, his work often taking the form of an invitation to be entertained, to enjoy oneself.

Kusolwong is best known for his temporary market installations, his Everything’s £1 style market stalls sell cheap mass-produced plastic goods, which as a result of the performance become desirable art objects. This engages art audiences in the performance by appealing to their consumer instincts, usually resulting in a frenzy of shopping that empties the shelves on the opening night. In providing spaces for social interaction Kusolwong narrows the conventional distance between the artist, artwork and audience and invites them to change their habitual roles. The ephemeral nature of the display results in an aesthetic that evolves through the duration of the exhibition.

Based loosely on the Thai floating market, they offer audiences a range of cheap, luridly-coloured, mass-produced items such as toys and household utensils selected from a Bangkok market. These imports are sold at a single price, such as one pound, euro or dollar. His markets induce frenzied consumption, highlighting our obsession with shopping – the goal of western capitalism might be seen as the relentless acquisition of things. More importantly, Kusolwong aims to confront people ‘with their own behaviour and habits but taking them out of their familiar context’.

For social systems, Kusolwong created two temporary ‘everything-for-the-same-price’ market events, one at Tate St. Ives, the other outside The Exchange in Penzance.

Selected biography

Born 1965, Ayutthaya, Thailand
Lives and works Bangkok, Thailand

Selected Exhibitions
2006 Bangmingham (Come as you are), solo, IKON Gallery, Birmingham
2006 The Long Weekend, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London
2005 If A Lion Could Talk, solo, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna
2004 Energy Storage (When Objects Dream), solo, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
2004 No Conclusion (Time Is The Answer), solo, Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö