Vacharanont Sinvaravatn

Investigating the spaces we exist in and how they become portrayed and embodied, Vacharanont Sinvaravatn engages with tensions of representation, probing the aesthetic vestiges of real and imagined local histories. Born into a time of intense political upheaval in Thailand, including the 1997 Tom Yam Goong crisis in his birth year, and the series of democratic protests when he was a student, Sinvaravatn has always been interested in how mainstream narratives can condition our belief systems and ways of life. Living in an age of infoxication, Sinvaravatn re-examines histories of political propaganda and image-making. He transforms the traditional landscape genre, embedding subtle skepticism and interrogation in rich pastoral imagery. Mirroring the creation of state-sanctioned illusions, the artist challenges official histories of the Thai countryside, uncovering the region as a site of communist contention and turbulence during the Cold War era. Sinvaravatn ultimately invites us to reconsider the images and narratives imposed upon us, questioning the power dynamics ascribed to definition and representation.