Naraphat Sakarthornsap (b. 1991 in Bangkok, Thailand) uses flower arrangements and floral symbology in his oeuvre to narrate sexual and gender inequality in society. Flowers have been a typical yet symbolic motif for the queer community to represent sexual identity. From sapphic violets and pansies to lavender and green carnations, they not only represent queerness but are also being used as a camp language in queer communications.
Similarly, in his Ignorant Bond series, Sakarthornsap arranges flowers in various spots of his Bangkok apartment; rather than merely queering domesticity, his works visualise and reveal the omnipresence of queerness. Queerness is in between the gaps, in the dirtiest corners, and in the most familiar and unexpected locales. It is circulated among the unspeakable desires while writing on a typewriter, the overwhelming memories hidden on the shelf with childhood memory photo albums, the countless bittersweet conversations on the phone; the mixed scent of detergent and body odour on the T-shirts, and the fire from the cooking stove in the kitchen.
Sakarthornsap's latest photography work Ignorant Bond 024 (2022) is taken in the storage room of his Bangkok apartment; in his adolescent years, he would stay there to call his former partner and play the electric piano when he needed time for self-healing. Situated in a light-shaded room, and a piano adorned with the pastel pink flower named ‘Chain of Love’ that is commonly found in Thailand, Sakarthornsap’s work reveals to the viewer a queer room of his own.
