Thanarat Asvasirayothin in Conversation with Artist, PaKa
PaKa is a Thai painter who works from her studio in Ban Bat, located in one of Bangkok’s historic districts. Her art is driven by her interests in everyday life and experiences in relation to food and objects that resonate with her from the past to the present. Although her main focus is painting, she also works with other mediums including sculpture, printmaking, zine publication, and video.
Her current body of work is set around Anchan as the central figure. Each piece represents a set of memories, giving a snapshot of nostalgic moments and scenic places that hold narratives, experiential influences, and a sense of humanity. Her visual language leaves viewers to form their own interpretations, yet her subjects’ intentions and objects’ symbolism leave us questioning with continual curiosity.
Eager to learn more about her creative process, MADE IN BED interviewed the artist to discuss her exploration of medium, the birth of Anchan, and her latest project currently in development, AfterTaste.
PaKa in her studio.
Thanarat Asvasirayothin: Could you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background and when your interest in creating art and your Anchan series began?
PaKa: My name is PaKa. I was born and raised in Bangkok and went to study abroad when I was 18. I graduated from Parsons’ The New School with a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts and later returned to Bangkok to focus on my practice. Initially, I applied to Parsons as a Fashion major but transferred to Fine Arts after seeing the Fine Arts department’s atmosphere. Studying at Parsons had a vital influence on my practice. [The character of Anchan] was born in my sophomore year. At the time I was still stuck in how I was taught in Bangkok, which is painting from a photograph. I used to be obsessed with making my subject look as realistic as possible. I tried to break away from that mindset and come up with my own form instead. As a result, Anchan has transformed with me; her features change over the years. It's like we’re growing together. I think of her as my self-portrait.
PaKa, Orbits of the Blueberries, 2022. Oil on canvas, 180 x 120 cm.
TA: What’s your first memory of being impacted by art?
P: I have enjoyed art since I could remember. I remember walking to art classes near my house on weekends and not wanting to leave. It was the only subject at school that I liked, but the moment that I felt the impact was when I was introduced to oil paint. As a kid, the paints I was exposed to were watercolour, gauche, and acrylic, but when I got to try oil in high school, I was hooked. I wanted to learn more and explore the medium. It was when I got more serious about painting and started working on large-scale canvases.
PaKa, How to Cut a Banana, 2022. Oil on canvas, 180 x 120 cm.
TA: What is your creative process and chosen techniques and/or materials for your current AfterTaste series?
P: All of my paintings are oil. However, there are sections on the canvas where I experiment with new mediums to create a fluorescent matte surface and incorporate drawing onto the canvas. The photograph of the painting doesn't capture the matte surface well compared to seeing it in person. Usually, I’ll start by sketching the narrative that’s in my head. The sketches serve as a guideline for the painting, but if it doesn’t feel right on the canvas I’ll make changes and adjust as I go. In AfterTaste, food is used to narrate a recollection of events and specific moments with Anchan as the main character.
PaKa, The Right Shade of Green, 2022. Oil on canvas, 180 x 120 cm.
TA: What interests you about these organic elements of Anchan flowers, and the shapes and surfaces of durians, blueberries, prosciutto, and avocados–which are all incorporated together with intimate body parts and the environmental scenery of your canvases?
P: Even though Anchan is inspired by the butterfly-pea flower, she has her own form and emotions that don’t come from the actual flower but from me. Food is a prominent figure in this body of work; some are straightforward, while some are used as an analogy to represent something or a being. Tasting is part of our senses; flavour can transport you to another place or bring back a flash of moments. There are many kinds of bananas and durians in Thailand, and each one has its own character, which I find interesting. The food in my paintings comes from the ones I ate. I tried to capture the truth, for example, the mark on the banana or the bruise on Anchan’s knee. However, in some elements, I exaggerated the details or adjusted the tone to make it more dramatic–highlighting the part that felt important. I also play a lot with scale, such as enlarging the blueberries. The result is seeing the details you might not see in real life, but that are there if you look carefully.
PaKa, Magenta Energy, 2022. Oil, pigmented medium, pencil, and sharpie on canvas, 180 x 120 cm.
TA: In the AfterTaste series, what is the connection between the paintings? What is the message behind each piece?
P: I think it's a collage of my personal experiences and my responses to them. Each painting can stand on its own but creates a larger narrative when viewed as a whole. One canvas is like a still from a movie. Most of the incidents in these paintings come from my young adult years, though some parts are pulled from my childhood. Events that are stuck with me to this day that I get to move on from through the process of painting them. It felt like saying it out loud for the first time and feeling relieved afterwards.
TA: Can you talk about the Baby Banana Transformation video?
P: Baby Banana Transformation is a project I started while working on my thesis. I made a zine to tell the myth of Baby Banana, who are born from fluorescent pink banana trees. Baby Banana were born as individual fingers, not in a hand like the regular bananas. They are neutral from birth without an assigned type. Baby Banana will have the freedom to choose which species of banana they want to become when they are fully formed. And when they reach the ripe stage, they can choose the way to die. For my thesis, I made a lifesize sculpture of the tree with a hand-forming technique so it has an organic feel, but at the same time, it's not a realistic version. Sadly I had to throw it away because I can’t ship it back to Bangkok. I wanted to further develop the tale of Baby Banana in another medium, so I made the video.
TA: How does the process work? Are there any challenges you have faced compared to painting?
P: The thinking process is similar to painting. I came up with the narrative first, then I planned the visual aspect. I’m very low-tech, but I prefer to do things by hand anyway, so I hand-drew the transformation part and used basic photoshop to animate. The challenge is the editing part because I don’t have editing knowledge, but the simple style might be the upside of not knowing. For the images, I used film photos that were already on my hard disk. The images I took over the years made me realize that I was always drawn to these themes without knowing. I narrated the video myself using the iPhone recorder. If my paintings could talk, it would be something like that.
TA: What is next for you?
P: I’m writing AfterTaste text that I might publish as a zine and planning another video, but it is still at an early stage. Hopefully, a painting exhibition?
PaKa, Durian Waits for You, 2021. Oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm.
Thanks to PaKa on behalf of MADE IN BED.
For more information on PaKa, follow her on Instagram. All photos are courtesy of the artist.
Thanarat Asvasirayothin
Contributing Writer, MADE IN BED