(read aloud)

what if i would write without commas or points without capital letters like how thai sentences are written how would the form of that writing impact how you experience it 

what if i would place a found image from the news next to a picture i shot while walking in china town and let the gap between them become the thing to look at

what if i started an archive of hands and or words and let them gesture index or mark

what if i painted limbs protesting defending or caressing drawing lines from one moment in time to another

what if what i see is not what you see yet we can hold carry or call upon these surface tensions

what if                 

                  if                if                if

(repeat until you fall into a rhythm)*

For this Artists at Work, ISCP artist-in-residence Apichaya Wanthiang will be joined by curator Alexandra Foradas. Wanthiang will present on her paintings and installations that address mediated experiences of global disasters, including unprecedented worldwide flooding and the disproportionate loss of life during COVID-19, as well as the (im)possibility of sharing painful experiences across different realities, such as the accumulated effects of racism and sexualization of migrant Asian women. Wanthiang and Foradas will speak about the artist’s current work, and her aims to center minority perspectives and seek connection between subjects such as food and protest, race and climate change, extractive policies and sexual violence, among others. They will also delve into Wanthiang’s process of materializing seemingly invisible relationships or incommensurable realities. Wanthiang and Foradas will conclude with a discussion about Wanthiang’s residency project—a text and image archive, which will serve as the blueprint for her future work. A Q&A with the audience will follow. 

Wanthiang creates environments in order to explore how they shape our perceptions, behaviors and interactions, and as a way to center embodied and somatic knowledge. She works primarily with painting and installations comprising light, sound and text. Wanthiang pays particular attention to the landscapes we surround ourselves with, the material, textural, atmospheric and weather conditions in which we exist, the narratives that we share and how we choose to retell them. Her work has been the subject of several recent solo exhibitions including at the Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway; Kristiansand Kunsthall, Norway; and Storage, Bangkok, Thailand, among other institutions. 

Alexandra Foradas is the Haskell Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Princeton University Art Museum. Her curatorial practice explores the relationship between museums and performance, systems of power, and the transmission of knowledge through media such as myth, ritual, and digital networks. Previously she was at MASS MoCA, where she curated and co-curated solo exhibitions by artists Osman Khan (2024), Jason Moran (2022), EJ Hill (2022), Taryn Simon (2018, 2021), and Annie Lennox (2019, co-curated with Joseph Thompson), as well as group exhibitions including Like Magic (2023), Deep Water (2022), and Kissing through a Curtain (2020).  

This program is supported by OCA – Office for Contemporary Art Norway; Hartfield Foundation; James Rosenquist Foundation; Joe Sultan; Lèna Saltos; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; Dr. Samar Maziad; Sarah Jones; van Beuren Charitable Foundation; William Talbott Hillman Foundation; and Woodman Family Foundation.

*Text by Apichaya Wanthiang 

This in-person event will be live streamed through Instagram: @iscp_nyc

Accessibility information: Please note that the entrance to ISCP has seven steps and a ramp, which is ADA compliant. There are seven artist studios and one exhibition space which can be accessed on the first floor of ISCP. There is an accessible bathroom on the first floor at the end of the hallway, up one step, where the artist studios are located. A temporary ramp can be installed to cover the step. To access the second floor, there is a staircase with a grab bar installed on the right side with 22 steps. The second floor has 22 artist and curator studios, one exhibition space, and a lounge where remarks by our speakers will take place. To access the third floor there is a staircase with a grab bar installed on the right side with 24 steps. The third floor has five artist and curator studios. ISCP can access a freight elevator to bring visitors between the first and second floors on request.

ISCP can offer two reserved parking spaces on request for people with disabilities. Please email programs@iscp-nyc.org to request a parking space and/or freight elevator usage.