The Artling | Why Context is Everything: Rirkrit Tiravanija’s Untitled (lunch box) at the National Gallery of Victoria

For Rirkrit Tiravanija, meals are a default to prompt strangers to feel a familiarity with each other- the resulting relationship between public engagement and food his popularised oeuvre. As his meals grant visitors to reach the work’s conclusion, however, the artist merely instigates his idea before ceasing control and leaving outcomes open. After he creates a platform – like a meal within a gallery in Untitled (lunch box)  – he leaves it be within its context, entrusting participants to condition the work’s conclusion. This assumes the gallery is passive – but the NGV is not a dead space waiting to be activated.