Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: The Same Old Karma
Artist(s)
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
Curator
Kittima Chareeprasit
copied
“To give new meaning to the old views, one may have to face the same old karma.”
Curated by Kittima Chareeprasit
Part One
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook:
The Same Old Karma
Curated by: Kittima Chareeprasit
At 100 Tonson Foundation, Bangkok
Co-organised with: MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiang Mai
Exhibition On View:
Part One: 16 October 2025 – 18 January 2026
Part Two: 24 January 2026 – 19 April 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday 16th October 2025, 6:00pm - 9:00pm
In conjunction with Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: The Bouquet and the Wreath, unfolding at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum and Jameel Art Centre, Dubai, 100 Tonson Foundation presents a parallel exhibition titled Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: the Same Old Karma, co-organised with MAIIAM. Together, these exhibitions revisit and reflect on nearly five decades of Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s artistic practice—one that persistently intertwines life, death, art, and writing into a singular, inseparable continuum.
At the Foundation, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: the Same Old Karma marks the first chapter of an ongoing archival project devoted to consolidating the artist’s extensive body of work. This exhibition attempts to trace the trajectory of Araya’s long practice through an interactive timeline that maps the convergence of her life, writings, and artworks. Presented alongside are all her single-channel video works, revealing the evolution of her thinking—from intimate meditations on mortality to incisive reflections on social and cultural boundaries.
The exhibition serves as preliminary research for the making of Araya archive, a long-term collaborative project currently in progress and scheduled for completion in January 2027. The second chapter, titled Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: Texturally, will focus on Araya’s text-based practice, exploring her essays, lectures, and literary writings that have profoundly reflected her artistic worldview.
As Araya has often remarked:
“To give new meaning to the old views, one may have to face the same old karma.”
This exhibition looks back on her work not as a retrospective closure but as a renewed encounter with the cycles of thought, emotion, and transformation that define her enduring contribution to Thai and global contemporary art. The exhibition title, Same Old Karma, is inspired by her recent multi-channel video installation The Same Old Karma Landscape at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum that comprises mostly footage from Araya’s earlier video artworks, dating back nearly three decades. Images and sounds are altered and reworked into a cacophony that oscillates between coherence and chaos. Revisiting and re-editing old footage to create a new work becomes a reflection on one’s artistic journey — a process akin to confronting one’s own “old karma.”
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: the Same Old Karma has been made possible through the support and contributions of Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Roger Nelson, Ek-Anong Phanachet, Lalita Singkhampuk, Bongkochakron Kampuk, Setapa Prom, Chanutphon Thongsin, Techin Rungwattanasophol, Koshaporn Wongsawanichakorn, Nutwara Thaiprayoon, Time Chotivilaivanit, Suteera Bootaranark, Nutdanai Songsriwilai, Supernormal Studio, and Waiting You Curator Lab. Throughout the exhibition, there will be a series of public programs. Follow 100 Tonson Foundation Facebook page for updates.
About the artist
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (b. 1957, Thailand; based in Chiang Mai) is an artist, writer, and professor, and one of Southeast Asia’s most respected contemporary practitioners. She has been exhibiting internationally for 45 years, including at documenta, the Carnegie International, and biennales in Venice, Johannesburg, Sydney, Istanbul, Bangkok, Jakarta, Gwangju, Singapore, and beyond. Her works are held in collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; M+, Hong Kong; and major museums in Singapore, Australia, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands, the United States, Thailand, and beyond. Important smaller surveys of her work have been presented at SculptureCenter, New York (2015) and 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney (2014). Araya has also played a major role innovating arts education in Thailand, where she established the country’s first interdisciplinary art school curricula. At her home and studio in Chiang Mai, she cares for dozens of stray dogs, who often appear in her artworks.
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