ABSTRACT
Entitled Akojorn (in English No-Go Zone), the first “contemporary” work by Phaptawan Suwannakudt, a Thai artist now living in Australia, was an installation of a clothesline on which hung several tube-shaped cloth garments called a pahtung. The work was profoundly transgressive because of its placement at the entrance of the gallery in Bangkok where it was displayed as part of an exhibition by women artists. In Thai culture, Yvonne Low points out, the pahtung is associated with menstrual blood. And it would never be hung above a man's head, which in Thai culture would be considered the most sacred part of the body. To force male visitors entering the space to walk underneath was thus a profound act of gender defiance. Akojorn would be instrumental in facilitating the artist “coming out” as a feminist Thai artist, Low suggests, indicating that it also ultimately played a role in the development of Womanifesto, a key transnational but Bangkok-based feminist art collective and network.
