Artist Talk: Surasi Kusolwong 'Question Paintings'

Thursday 6 April 2006

Surasi Kusolwong playfully fuses installation and performance to reflect modern consumer lifestyles.  His Everything’s £1 style market stalls sell cheap mass-produced plastic tat, 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.

Surasi Kusolwong was in Cornwall on a research visit to develop the new work which was presented July-September 2007 in Penzance and St Ives