This video is one out of a series of international encounters between classical paintings and Thai villagers and farmers.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s The Two Planets series explores how narratives of art history are constructed. The series includes film and photographic work recording the responses of Thai farmers to well-known western art masterpieces. Sitting in front of reproductions of works such as Van Gogh’s La méridienne, 1889-1890, local farmers who do not know the cultural value or history of the painting discuss it with a freshness and curiosity not available to those of us familiar with the painting. We hear the farmers trying to interpret the image in front of them, questioning what the protagonists are doing, and why. Rasdjarmrearnsook’s film raises numerous questions: can we have a full appreciation of an artwork even if we don’t have all the information and history about it? To what extent does an over abundance of information and interpretation blind us to the pleasure of looking at an artwork and using our imaginations?

Text: Alice Correia, Image: Courtesy the artist and Gimpel Fils, London