Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex Gvojic: PRAY

Canal Projects is a new visual arts nonprofit organization in downtown Manhattan. The organization supports innovative international artists through newly-commissioned works and site-specific iterations of underexposed projects. Alongside exhibitions, the organization will host performances, readings, and screenings as well as a library programmed by a rotating series of artists and collectives.

Canal Projects will launch with an exhibition by Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex Gvojic. Titled PRAY, the exhibition comprises two large-scale video installations: Songs for living and Songs for dying (2021), opening at Canal Projects on September 29th from 6-8pm.

Created by Arunanondchai in collaboration with Gvojic, Songs for living is a large installation and multimedia project that explores spirituality, animism, and overlooked histories. Presented in an immersive environment where a wishing pond reflects a submerged image onto a screen, the work speaks to the poetics of radical consciousness, collectivity, and political trauma.  

In Songs for dying, departing from the loss of his grandfather, Arunanondchai unfolds stories that carry the idea of self and loss into the space of the unknowable. Organized around a sequence of songs, the piece focuses on the rituals of death and the process of decomposition, which more than enunciating a final end create the possibility of continuous transformation.

A visual artist and filmmaker, Korakrit Arunanondchai tells stories that speak to the formation of collectivity and higher power. His highly experimental works provide the public with immersive experiences of political and ritualistic nature. As a multidisciplinary artist, Arunanondchai creates videos, performances, and sound pieces in collaboration with artists, filmmakers, musicians, and writers. Arunanondchai’s works have been featured in major solo and group exhibitions including Moderna Museet in Sweden (2022); Art Sonje Center in Seoul (2022); Bangkok CityCity Gallery (2022); Singapore Art Museum (2022); and Kunsthall Trondheim in Norway (2021).

Alex Gvojic is a New York–based designer and cinematographer. His work focuses on creating "hyper-reality" environments that blend video, light, and cinematic tropes. His work has been presented at the Venice Biennale, Berlin Biennale, Palais de Tokyo, Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement, MoMA PS1, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in China, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, among others. He has collaborated with a variety of artists including Ryan Trecartin, DIS, Xavier Cha, Fatima Al Qadiri, and others.

Library residency
Beneath the illuminated sidewalk our first library residency hosts Canal Street Research Association (CSRA), the fictional office of poetic research unit Shanzhai Lyric. During their residency, Shanzhai Lyric will research Canal Street’s economic undercurrents as sites that probe the limits of authorial ownership. 

Upcoming exhibitions
In spring 2023, Canal Projects will present a broad selection of works by the Korean avant-garde artist Seung-taek Lee, whose radical experimentations influenced the direction of modern art in East Asia since the 1960s. In the Fall, Canal Projects will feature artist Amie Siegel, whose layered and precise moving images investigate the systemic underpinnings of value, ownership, labor, and class. 

About Canal Projects
Canal Projects is a nonprofit contemporary arts organization dedicated to supporting forward-thinking international artists at pivotal moments in their careers. Through production, exhibition, research, and interpretation of the work, Canal Projects intends to foster artistic practices that challenge and reflect on the current moment. Canal Projects is generously supported by the YS Kim Foundation. 

Summer Guthery is the inaugural Artistic Director of Canal Projects. Before returning to New York, Guthery was the Executive Director and co-founder of the nonprofit gallery JOAN in Los Angeles, California that features emerging and underrepresented artists. She also worked as the Curator of Performance and Public Programming at LAXART in Los Angeles and as an Assistant Curator of Performa Biennial in 2013 & 2011. Guthery’s appointment comes with a commitment to access, diversity, and community-oriented programming. 

Visit canalprojects.org for further details. 

Media contact
For additional information, images, or to request an interview please contact Ben Demars, Blue Medium: ben [​at​] bluemedium.com 

Songs for Living, co-commissioned by Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst and Kunstverein in Hamburg with support from FACT, Liverpool. Additional support by C L E A R I N G New York/Brussels.

Songs for Dying, co-commissioned by the 13th Gwangju Biennale, Han Nefkens Foundation, and Kunsthall Trondheim.