Rirkrit Tiravanija

Rirkrit Tiravanija’s Untitled (lunch box) is a conceptual work that involves inviting randomly selected visitors to share a Thai takeaway meal in the gallery space. The meal consists of pork satay, green papaya salad, chicken yellow curry and rice, as specified by the artist.

Tiravanija is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of his generation, and since the 1990s has based much of his art around the idea of creating social spaces and platforms for instruction and discussion. His works have taken various forms, including performances, teaching, readings, broadcasting music, cooking and sharing meals, and are associated with the concept of ‘relational aesthetics’, a term coined in the 1990s by French curator and art critic Nicolas Bourriaud that describes ‘a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space’; or put simply, as Tiravanija has stated, ‘It is not what you see that is important but what takes place between people’.

Participation
At 12.15pm daily, staff will invite four visitors to participate in this work by sharing a Thai meal together. Due to the nature of this work, bookings or dietary requirements are not able to be accommodated.