Bangkok
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When Thai artist Nantana Phonak learned of her partner's infidelity in 2004, she turned to painting. Through her work, she channelled her anger and pain, depicting the many things she wanted to do to him but couldn't, such as cutting off his penis.
'I started having the urge to paint because I didn't know how to tell people what happened or understand and describe the pain,' the 35-year-old Bangkok artist says. 'I just felt deep sadness and the only way I knew to comfort myself was by painting.'
Phonak created the Pressure (2004) series, a collection of watercolours such as Sexy (detail below), which shows a woman with her face and neck so contorted and mangled that her torn muscles and tendons are visible through to her spine. Her hands are hidden, suggesting helplessness.
In Aggression 2, a foot stamps on the decapitated head of Phonak's former partner. For All Men is a sort of phallic hell, with penises chopped up, stuck with toothpicks, or skewered like a pig on a spit. (Attacks involving male genitals in Bangkok aren't uncommon; Thai surgeons who specialise in penis re-attachments are among the best in the world.)
'The paintings look scary,' Phonak says. 'In real life, it would be very bad to act these things out. But I'm showing that you can kill without actually killing. I want to show this to every man who comes into my life - what would happen if they cheated on me, so they won't.'
What impact has her work had on her social life? Friends have suggested that she see a psychiatrist, but Phonak says painting helped get her through a painful period.
And it seems that she has moved on. Her most recent paintings feature beautiful tropical flowers.
Nantana Phonak's work is on view by appointment only at The Livin' (artthailand.net)
