Wilawan Wiangthong

I was ordering coffee inside Tentacles N22, waiting for Wilawan, or Waew. I did not realise she was already there, quietly seated behind a table, patching together fragments of a 3D-printed spine. She lives nearby in a house shared with other creatives, and Tentacles, along with N22, a cluster of independent art spaces, feels like an extension of her studio. That is where we began our conversation.

Wilawan grew up in a small village in Isan. With strong grades, her parents hoped she would become a lawyer or a teacher. Choosing art created tension at home, so she set out to prove herself through national competitions and scholarships, eventually earning a full grant to study at Silpakorn University. That was a turning point.

Yet university also exposed her to rigid hierarchies and hazing culture. She shifted to a Mixed Media major, which allowed her to explore feminist theory and use her own body as material. Through performance, photography, objects and moving sculptures, she questions how Isan women are portrayed, exploited and reduced within patriarchal narratives. Her work circles persistently around labour, gender and power.

Walking through N22, Waew carried a mechanical female pelvis under her arm, part of Won’t Go Home Until I Make It, reflecting on the fragile ambitions of Isan women who migrate to Bangkok. While active in the capital, she remains deeply tied to her roots, working with three Khon Kaen-based collectives, Phifa Collective Art, Kult X Collaborative Space and Pootorn Connect, while advocating for a more decentralised and regionally conscious Thai art landscape.

A few minutes’ walk away, we continued the shoot at the house she shares. On the ground floor, a 3D printer hummed steadily. Upstairs, in her compact bedroom studio, she showed me a comic drawn from her installation at the Thailand Biennale in Phuket, where mythical figures intertwine with the realities of migrant and Isan female labour.

I took my final shots in that small room before she waved goodbye. As I walked home, I wondered whether my next trip should be to Phuket, or to Isan.