Wantanee, 1999–2004
When the name becomes forms
WANTANEE is an early body of work that critically examines self-naming, visibility, and the construction of artistic identity. Between 1999 and 2004, the project developed a series of alter egos and fictional figures that allowed “Wantanee” to circulate as a mutable persona rather than a fixed individual.
Across video, installation, and performative actions, the name becomes a device—reproduced, staged, and transformed within different contexts. Identity is treated not as an expression, but as a structure shaped by repetition, presentation, and external recognition.
By multiplying and destabilising her own image, the project interrogates how artistic subjectivity is produced through systems of display, authorship, and cultural expectation. In retrospect, WANTANEE marks an early investigation into the politics of visibility and self-institutionalisation—anticipating later works that would expand these concerns toward relational, ecological, and beyond-human forms of attention.
