Two art world superstars come together for STPI show

AT THE centre of STPI’s gallery space, there is a conceptual graveyard with 20 tombstones for 20 extinct animals. They include the dodo bird, golden toad, passenger pigeon, Zanzibar leopard and Javan tiger. The tombstones are shaped in the form of aluminium plates, each with an engraved image of an animal. Visitors are given pieces of paper to place above the tombstone and rub a crayon on it. In doing so, they replicate the image and keep it as a form of commemoration – keeping the animal “alive”, so to speak.

The exhibition is by art world superstar Rirkrit Tiravanija and curated by the eminent Hans Ulrich Obrist. Poignantly titled We Don’t Recognise What We Don’t See, it features 40 artworks that carry the themes of extinction and humanity’s destruction of the natural world. Tiravanija is famous for incorporating the element of human participation in his artworks; he made his breakthrough in 1990s by turning gallery spaces into kitchens where people can cook, eat and interact with each other. 

But in this show, there is a more childlike playfulness required of the visitor, as if such playfulness would lift the show from being too gloomy. He says: “I’ve always been interested in creating works that make people more aware of their environment. I wanted this show to make people particularly aware of how we coexist with the natural world, how we treat animals, how we domesticate them, what we put in our mouths, and so on.”