In the new issue of AnOther Magazine, the multidisciplinary research-based artist discusses one of his greatest – and perhaps unexpected – passions
This article is taken from the Autumn/Winter 2021 issue of AnOther Magazine:
“With freediving you take one breath and swim down to the depths of the ocean. I’ve been doing it for a little over a year and it’s really influenced my relationship with my body and my mortality. There’s a place in Koh Tao, Thailand, called New Heaven Dive School that teaches ocean conservation and a course linking yoga with freediving. It’s quite primordial and scary to begin with, but when you bring it back to yoga practices it’s all about the breath. My teacher talks about freediving as a wedge with a threshold – a boundary you don’t cross, like running out of air and passing out. But metaphorically, in life there are boundaries and the wedge opens more space for you to exist without crossing that boundary. It’s not like freediving extends your mortality, but it gives you a certain faith in the ability of your body. You realise the human body possesses powers and abilities that you’re not really aware of until you put them into practice.”
Korakrit Arunanondchai creates hypnotic work that transcends time and space. A multidisciplinary research-based artist working across video, painting, performance and installation, he is revered for his Painting With History series. Based in both Thailand and Brooklyn, Arunanondchai experienced an upbringing that profoundly informs his practice, and he often explores the role that spirituality and belief systems play in forming cultures. He draws on pop culture, memory, technology and globalisation to immerse audiences in thought, mediation and, at times, frightening foresight that connects east with west, and the past with both the present and our increasingly uncertain future. This autumn he debuts newly commissioned works, including video installations, paintings and sculptures, at both the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich and Kunstverein, Hamburg – marking his first solo exhibitions in these cities – with a jointly produced show titled Songs for dying / Songs for living.
This shoot appears in the Autumn/Winter 2021 issue of AnOther Magazine which will be on sale internationally from 7 October 2021. Head here to purchase a copy.