<p>From his Chiang Mai studio, the Thai artist reflects on his artistic journey</p>

How I became an artist: Mit Jai Inn

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<p>‘It’s only recently that I’ve&nbsp;been able to earn a living as an artist. About eight years ago, I started to accept the gallery system – or it accepted me! People saw me as a painter. More invitations for exhibitions came in. Slowly I earned enough money to build a house and studio in Chiang Mai.</p><p>‘For a long time, I never cared about going hungry or my security. I was more concerned about utopian things – a new age for society, humanity. For people in Thailand and Myanmar, the situation is getting worse and worse. There’s so much abuse of power and justice. Trying to confront these things matters more to me than my own life. My living this way has often worried my friends and family, especially my mother. She wondered how I could survive. But I lived happily. I was like a hippie. Something would always happen and I’d find some money.</p><p>‘I think art is too shallow a word. I see art as a utopian dream within everyday life. Sometimes you want to practice but you can’t because the opposing structures are too strong. Making objects might seem conventional, but they really function. Painting is healing. It calms my nerves, like meditation.</p>

<p>‘As a boy, I loved to break things – I was such a troublemaker! I was always rebelling against authority. I realized that being an artist was my only option. Breaking things apart is what modern artists do. It’s like modern society, constantly renewing itself. </p><p>‘When I went to Silpakorn University [in Bangkok] to study art in the 1980s, I’d disagree with everything. If you wanted to earn a living, Silpakorn was the only place in Thailand to study painting. Yet, even from the first day, I felt that I already knew so much about art that the other students didn’t. </p><p>‘At Silpakorn, I got my diploma, but left halfway through my final year to travel around Germany. At the time, it was easy for Thai students to go to Germany on tourist visas and extend them once they were there. After a year, I went to Vienna, where I was probably the first Thai artist to apply for the master’s program at the University of Applied Arts.</p>

<p>‘In Vienna, I made a lot of sculpture. It was also where I met&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8522/Franz-West">Franz West</a> – he used to walk around the studios at the university. I brought him to see the small sculptures that I had been working on and he liked them. After that, he asked me to come and work for him as a studio assistant. In 1989 he was just starting to be recognized in the artworld, and having his first solo exhibitions in the US and Germany.</p><p>‘Every summer while I was in Vienna, Alfred Pawlin – an Austrian expatriate who ran the Visual Dhamma Gallery in Bangkok – would visit me. By 1992, Thailand was under military rule, a situation similar to now, with a proxy democratic government and the king as the head of state. When Alfred invited me to take part in an exhibition at Visual Dhamma Gallery I felt I had to come back and deal with what was happening in Thailand. </p><p>‘I remember I did a naked performance for the exhibition. Many people – including the Thai businessman who was co-owner of the gallery – found it shocking. He found it so “perverse” that he decided he didn’t want to work with Alfred anymore. But it hadn’t been my intention to create controversy. For me, it was a simple and direct way of voicing protest against the military, against the establishment.</p>

<p>‘Before coming back to Thailand, I had already been planning another event with the artist Uthit Atimana, a friend of mine. I was thinking about how we could do something without leaving a trace. We called it “Chiang Mai Social Installation” [CMSI]&nbsp;and imagined it like a <em style="background-color: initial;">sangha</em> (พระสงฆ์). In English, the word <em style="background-color: initial;">sangha</em> roughly translates as “a social entity” or “community” that can assume authority on behalf of Buddha and dhamma [Buddhist teaching].</p><p>‘I never saw the objects that I made for CMSI as “my” works. I also helped artists who couldn’t come to Chiang Mai to make their works. I wanted to introduce the idea that anyone could reenact a concept by artists like Joseph Kosuth, Art &amp; Language, or Lawrence Weiner. A work doesn’t have to be made by an artist in order for it to be art. </p><p>‘These past few months, I have been building a second studio in the mountains near Chiang Mai. I always said to myself that, when I turned 60, I’d need a quiet place. When it’s finished, I’ll work four days a week in the city and three days here. In the countryside, I can contemplate my life and work in peace.</p>

<p>‘It makes me happy when I see photos of people with my works on Instagram. It shows that they’re public objects that everyone can enjoy. Most people who saw my installation at “Art on Farm” at the Jim Thompson Farm [2019–20] didn’t think it was an artwork. They thought it was something pretty to be photographed. The same thing happened at Art Basel Hong Kong [in 2019] – visitors would stop inside my installation and take selfies. I think it’s this kind of reaction to my works that caused a friend of mine to say that they’re “like wallpaper.” Even though he was being critical, I took it as a compliment.’</p>
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<p><a href="/catalog/artist/34624/Mit-Jai-Inn">Mit Jai Inn</a> is represented by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1440/Silverlens">Silverlens</a>, Manila, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1453/TKG">TKG+</a>, Taipei.&nbsp;His first solo exhibition in Europe is scheduled to open at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK on September 15, 2021.&nbsp;</p><p>Melanie Pocock is the curator of Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK.</p>

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