Museum of Contemporary Art Visit

MCA building from Circular Quay train station

Last week Judy, another OCA student, and I went off to see another section of the Sydney Biennale exhibition, this time at the newly refurbished Museum of Contemporary Art.  I didn’t go mad with the photography because I wasn’t sure if it was allowed  but soon realised that everyone was happily snapping away.  So I missed a few opportunities.

I found the above exhibit very interesting.  It doesn’t look much from the picture but once I was up close and personal the colour mixing and textural painting could be fully appreciated.

The work is oil paint on canvas and is by Mit Jai Inn from Chang Mai in northern Thailand.  I have read many, many artist statements where all sorts of meanings are supposed to be portrayed in some way or another, many of which I can’t grasp, but here the vision is ‘nothingness’.  His statement reads:

Mit Jai Inn refuses to define his own artistic practice in conventional terms such as painting or sculpture.  When his work appears beyond categorisation, the artist has achieved his aim of working towards his vision of eukabeuk, or nothingness…………….. He leaves the composition or arrangement of the works to others, to facilitate participation in a colourful co-composition.

Could this mean that he had a bit of fun, slapping paints and colours around into pleasing and interesting effects with no particular theme in mind, and is leaving all of us to make of it what we will, take from it what we want, and interpret it in our own way?

So nice to appreciate something with no deep meaningful baggage attached for a change.

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