Photo: Reconstruction of 'Bar El Batey' by Rirkrit Tiravaninija. Picture courtesy of Ikon Gallery.
Demo Station no.4 is an exhibition of Rirkrit Tiravanija’s works at Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery running until January 25, 2004.
The exhibition, on display in the first and second floor galleries, is a combination of drawings, practical demonstrations and an installation of a bar.
The bar, complete with jukebox and pool tables, is a reconstruction of Bar El Batey in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It consists of four rooms, including playing and lounge areas, fitted with second-hand furniture from Birmingham pubs and bars.
The drawings, based on press photographs of political demonstrations, are by Pattara Chanruechachai and were commissioned by Tiravanija. In one she depicts only a few characters but successfully represents the emotions of entire groups as well as the individuals she portrays.
Photo: Drawing by Pattara Chanruechachai. Courtesy of Ikon Gallery.
The practical demonstrations are wide ranging and some change over the course of the exhibition. Throughout there will be a model railway and golf putting. Up to January 4 there will be calligraphy, flower arranging, chess and bonsai trimming. From January 5 to the end of the exhibition there will be circus tricks, woodcarving and origami.
Rirkrit Tiravanija was born in Buenos Aires in 1961, raised in Thailand, Ethiopia and Canada and educated in New York and Chicago. These days he is based in New York and Berlin but has exhibited worldwide.
Perhaps it is his itinerant lifestyle that has inspired his fascination with communication and people’s reactions to art?
Tiravanija has described his stye of art as recording less of what you see, but more of what takes place between people.
Photo: Wallpaper designed by Udomsak Krisanamis, part of Tiravanija's bar installation. Picture courtesy of Ikon Gallery.
And it could be argued that the artist does not produce works so much as situations or events where the distinctions between art and its audience are blurred.
In the past he has set up a temporary kitchen where he cooked curry and chatted with visitors. At Cologne’s Kunstverein Gallery, he recreated his New York apartment complete with kitchen and bathroom. On another occasion he cycled across Spain for five days.
With Tiravanija life is art and art is life and his latest exhibition is a good example of that.
