Pussa Via Bush, 2008
neon writing - waiting for the American elections and the ending of the mandate period of Bush
We don't touch the art. Held up like holy reliquaries, Fine Art, we have been led to believe, is to be gazed upon, revered and contemplated but certainly never pawed. This rule has become so ingrained that we know instinctively that we must keep our hands in our pockets for fear of retribution from the fashionably gray-clad guard or shrill-voiced Brahmin docent.
While others have come before in challenging this fundamental artworld paradigm, Rirkrit Titavanija is driven not so much by political agenda but more simply the impetus to encourage his audience to get down with the art and become an integral part of it in the process. His work dissolves the tenuous boundaries between viewer and participant, inviting the audience to interact, engage and enjoy--as if it weren't a formal exhibition at all, but a gathering of friends, sharing stories and temporarily escaping the pervasively isolated nature of contemporary life.