Rasdjarmrearnsook’s Two Planets Series Astounds
by Paul Weiner
The perfect appetizer for the Denver Art Museum’s Passport to Paris exhibition is hidden in a dark corner on the museum’s fourth floor. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s Two Planets series illustrates perception as a function of social conditioning and challenges the notion that art viewers must be properly cultured to understand a master painting’s meaning. Rasdjarmrearnsook introduces small groups of Thai villagers to reproductions of Western master paintings such as Jean-François Millet’s The Gleaners. As the group interprets Millet’s The Gleaners by finding aspects of its own culture immersed in the painting, Rasdjarmrearnsook exposes how the struggle of every viewer to find meaning in a master painting results in a valuable point of view.
Facing away from the camera, the Thai villagers explain that they can’t comprehend the artistic intent within the Millet painting in front of them. Are the gleaners “digging for bugs” or harvesting rice? And where are the elephants used for field labor? The villagers are candid as they repetitively claim not to know anything at all. But they know as much as we do. The way they struggle with the painting and attribute personal meaning to it is how every art appreciator should.
Define the forms. Apply your own life experiences to the work. Develop an interpretation, whether narrative or conceptual. Paintings are masterworks because they invite varied interpretations, which is exactly why Passport to Paris visitors should experience the enlightenment of Two Planets first.
Rasdjarmrearnsook’s work is a masterpiece itself because of its ability to inspire imagination. I found myself voyaging into an introspective space for nearly half an hour as English translations of befuddled Thai conversations rolled across the bottom of the screen. The sound of birds and wilderness hearkened back to my childhood while camping in the Rocky Mountains and discussing life’s intricacies with my family over card games and an open fire. The humid and growing landscape brought about a crescendo of nostalgia, hope, and satisfaction for a fleeting moment. How is my perception formed? What does this painting mean given my past experiences? Do I really know anything? I was entranced. Illuminated. Inspired.
“It’s just a bunch of women talking in another language,” muttered another museum goer who peeked in for just a second.
And then it was gone.
Have fun seeing the French masters in the Denver Art Museum, and take the time to appreciate the covert contemporary master on the fourth floor.
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Great article. I just walked by there the other day on my way home from work. I peered into the community room from outside and saw this quote from Jacob Collins on the wall, “There are many ways to draw beautifully. Its important to let the drawing be an investigation and sometimes in order to investigate, you need to go off the path.”
I grew up in Denver and just recently moved back. The new art museum was built about the time I left, I think it is time to rediscover it, thank you for the inspiration.
Thanks for all of your comments! Glad to hear that you like the blog and that you’re heading to the DAM. A lot of things have changed about that museum over the past few years, especially in the contemporary art sections. I’d also check out the Clyfford Still Museum if I was you. It’s really amazing (and right next door to the DAM).
I will. I work at one of the other museums right now, so i find myself unable to spend the time in them that I would like to. But I just have to make the time and the experience will be there. I will definitely check out both of them in the next few weeks.
I hope you enjoy them. The museums are doing great work here to expand the art scene, which is a pleasure to watch.
wow
Very interesting demonstration of how even the most seemingly straightforward representations contain all kinds of cultural information. So if you “just paint” the little bowl of apples sitting on the kitchen table … know that quite possibly you allude to an entire civilization.
I find this news very heartening!
Indeed! At the end of the day, the perceived greatness of your artwork might depend more on your audience than yourself. Odd to think about, huh?
Ah, wonderful discussion! It’s always been clear to me that the interpretations of art are as myriad and individual as the people who make them…and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s good to remind museum-goers in such a direct way of how heavily culture weighs on us, and how little it really has to mean in the end. Thanks for posting! (And thanks for the follow!)
Absolutely! All of us read artwork differently, but every interpretation is a worthy one.
Thanks for the follow, and for writing about this. I did see this right before exploring the “Passport to Paris” exhibit last week. (Sadly not enough time that day to watch all of it) Fascinating. I loved reading the women’s reactions. It made me pay attention to the reactions and comments of the other visitors when we saw the French exhibit. I’d never been to the DAM before but now I’m really looking forward to profiting from our new membership!
This is beautiful. its like a new media palimpsest that involves place, time and culture in various degrees.
Loved this article and plan on being at the DAM this weekend. I shall check this out. Thanks for the visit to, at my site.
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