CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 12/19/2023

Arthur Jafa on Rirkrit Tiravanija in 'A LOT OF PEOPLE'

Drawn from a quote by Guy Debord, Rirkrit Tiravanija’s “untitled 2014 (the days of this society is numbered / December 7, 2012),” 2014, is reproduced from A LOT OF PEOPLE, published to accompany the endorphin-releasing, four-decade-spanning, first American survey on the beloved pioneer of Relational Aesthetics, on view at MoMA PS1 until March 2024. “I remember having conversations with my friend Greg Tate about how Rirkrit, as a non-white man, was rolling in the art space,” Arthur Jafa writes. “The word ‘audacity’ comes up. How was he getting away with things that, on the surface, seemed effortless? Part of the beauty of his work is that it doesn’t feel overwrought. It seems immanent. Like it was always there—as if he didn’t make anything. I think Rirkrit’s work in general is very resistant to language, to being couched in aesthetic terms. He does not make grand gestures that feel traumatic or cathartic. His work is much more gentle. … I find it interesting when artists can keep making things that sit in the cut in a certain way. It is tricky to calibrate something that makes itself available, but is not solicitous. Something very telling, that is not telling you what to think. It’s a very hard thing to do even once or twice, much less consistently over a long period of time.”