The Bouquet and the Wreath (ข้อมาลา), a retrospective exhibition covering Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s entire artistic career, opened at MAIIAM in Chiang Mai on 26th July. The exhibition runs until 25th May 2026, and a second phase (إكليل باقة الأزهار) will be shown in Dubai later this year.
The show includes several works from Araya’s Conversation with Death on Life’s First Street (สนทนากบความตายบนถนนสายแรกของชวต) series, contemplative videos filmed at a morgue. The Class 1–3 (ชั้นเรียน 1–3) are shown in an installation appropriately resembling a classroom, and the triptych Chant for Female Corpse (สวดเพื่อร่างตายหญิง) is installed inside a wooden hut. (The Class 1–3 were previously shown at Dialogues in 2011, and Chant for Female Corpse was shown during Galleries’ Night in 2014.)
The installation Prostitute’s Room (ห้องโสเภณี) is another highlight: a small, semi-enclosed space containing three bowls of the artist’s blood, some of which has spilled onto the gallery floor. The piece has not been exhibited for thirty years; when it was first shown in 1995, it featured bowls of the Araya’s menstrual blood.
