Michael Shaowanasai, is a Thai-American

Thai American

A Thai American is an American of whose parents or grandparents came from Thailand. Many of them may in fact be of Thai Chinese or at least part Chinese ancestry, but they are still considered to be Thais.-History in U.S.:...

 artist and actor who lives in Bangkok

Bangkok

Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...

. His works includes performance art

Performance art

In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...

, photography

Photography

Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

, video

Video

Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...

, film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 and installations

Installation art

Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...

.

He graduated from School of Law at Chulalongkorn University

Chulalongkorn University

Chulalongkorn University is the oldest university in Thailand and is the country's highest ranked university. It now has nineteen faculties and institutes. Regarded as the best and most selective university in Thailand, it consistently attracts top students from around the country...

 in 1985, earned a bachelor's of fine arts degree at San Francisco Art Institute

San Francisco Art Institute

San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...

 in 1994 and a master's of fine arts from the Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...

 in 1996. He is a founding member of Project 304, a Bangkok-based contemporary art group.

His solo shows include MS@OAS, a photography installation at Open Art Space in Bangkok; Thailand, as well as shows at the Fujikawa Gallery in Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, the 4A gallery in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and Ottawa Art Gallery, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

Among his more provocative works are Welcome to My Land ... Come and Taste the Paradise, an installation and performance by Project 304 in Bangkok and Fresh Young Boys' Semen for Sale, a performance on Patpong

Patpong

Patpong is an entertainment district in Bangkok, Thailand, catering mainly, though not exclusively, to foreign tourists and expatriates. While Patpong is internationally known as a red light district at the heart of Bangkok's sex industry, it is in fact only one of numerous red-light districts...

 in Bangkok.

Among his film and video works is the 2003

2003 in film

The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...

 feature film, The Adventure of Iron Pussy

The Adventure of Iron Pussy

The Adventure of Iron Pussy is a 2003 Thai musical-action-comedy film written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Michael Shaowanasai and starring Shaowanasai as the main protagonist – a transvestite Thai secret agent whose alter ego is a gay male 7-Eleven clerk...

, which he co-directed with Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer. His feature films include Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, winner of the prestigious 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or prize; Tropical Malady, which won a jury prize at the 2004...

. A spoof of Thai movie musicals and melodramas of the 1960s and '70s (especially those of Petchara Chaowarat

Petchara Chaowarat

Petchara Chaowarat is a Thai film actress who starred in around 300 films from 1961 to 1979. An icon of the "Golden Age" of Thai cinema, she was known for her round, pool-like eyes and elaborate hairstyles.Her first film and starring role was in Banthuk Rak Pimchawee , in 1961...

, Michael portrayed the title character, a transvestite Thai secret agent whose alter ego is a gay male 7-Eleven

7-Eleven

7-Eleven is part of an international chain of convenience stores, operating under Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd, which in turn is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co...

 clerk. The film was screened at several festivals, including the Tokyo International Film Festival

Tokyo International Film Festival

Tokyo International Film Festival is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biannually from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter...

, the Berlin Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival

Melbourne International Film Festival

The Melbourne International Film Festival is an acclaimed annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1951, making it one of the oldest in the World....

, as well as a limited commercial run in a Bangkok cinema and a DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 release in Thailand.

Shaowanasai, who is openly

Coming out

Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....

 gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

, had a featured role in the 2006 romantic-comedy, Metrosexual

Metrosexual (film)

Metrosexual is a 2006 Thai romantic-comedy about four women who believe their best friend is about to marry a man who is gay. The film was directed by Yongyooth Thongkongtoon, who also directed The Iron Ladies...

and portrays a soccer referee in Lucky Loser

Lucky Loser

Lucky Loser is a 2006 Thai sports-comedy about a small, fictional Southeast Asian country's bid to play in the World Cup...

.

On 2008, Shaowanasai curated the exhibition 'Lifeboat #2551' as part of the Sydney Biennale Projects, in Gallery 4A, also known as the Asia-Australia Arts Centre. The exhibition screened video and film works by artists Wit Pimkanchanapong, Sakarin Krue-on, Tintin Cooper, [Momokomotion], Manit Sriwanichpoom and Michael Shaowanasai.

External links

• Project 304
• Identities Versus Globalisation
• [Gallery 4a Past Shows: Lifeboat #2551]http://www.4a.com.au/past/Past_2008.htm