The artworks in this chapter use the body to explore and challenge social norms related to gender and sexuality. Instead of sticking to rigid categories, they highlight the fluid and complex nature of bodily experiences. These works show that bodies continue to navigate these norms without constant self-questioning. By focusing on bodily desires and expressions, the artworks reveal how queer Southeast Asia and its diaspora interact with and resist normative orders.
Thematizing politics of racialized desire are the works of two artists. Thai artist Natthapong Samakkaew (Berlin) draws inspiration from the Phu Bao collection of Thai’s historic erotic prints in the Schwules Museum Archive, using mixed-media collage. Indonesian artist Indra Liusuari (Melbourne) produced a sculpture and video installation. Both artists, in their own ways, examine the dynamics between brown boys seeking financial and residential stability in the West and white European partners desiring the exotic.
Vietnamese-American artist/activist Nu (Sai Gon) explores the spiritual strength through staged photographs of naked queer and trans*persons in Vietnam, brings bodily emancipation closer to daily life realities. Thai artist Oat Montien (Bangkok) via a hanging mixed-media sculpture and video, allows the queer Asian body of his and his friends becoming the vessel for spiritual healing. His work bridges the lost bond with his father through the practice of bondage and Western-genre culture, binding his father’s personal obsessions with his artist residency experience at the Tom of Finland Foundation. Kelvin Atmadibrata (London) utilizes his access to usually “toxic” masculinity and quirky video game-related (Pokemon) roleplay methodology to bless the exhibition’s opening, leaving traces of the body that predates all these materials gathered.
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Making Love with the Ghost (เสียวกับผี)
Natthapong Samakkaew (ณัฐพงศ์ สมัครแก้ว)
2024
Mixed media on canvas
Courtesy of the artist
Unglorious Worship Booth
Indra Liusuari
2022
plywood, acrylic paint, steel bars, construction adhesive, foam tape, concrete, video (00:03:04 hrs) on CRT television
Courtesy of the artist
Formless and just be
Nu
2020-2024
Photography, in various sizes
Courtesy of the artist
American Dream Revisited
Oat Montien (โอ๊ต มณเฑียร)
2024
Mixed media shibari installation: rope, clothes from artist’s late father
Courtesy of the artist
Untie (Death Valley)
Oat Montien (โอ๊ต มณเฑียร)
2023
Single-channel video, 5.31 min.
Courtesy of the artist
But Nothing Happened!
Kelvin Atmadibrata
Series, 2014-24
Performance with relics installation: a white plinth, opaque dust sheet, gold paint, barbell rings, plastic crown, folders and paper drawing cutouts, a sound recording played in a loop.
Courtesy of the artist