Warin Lab Contemporary announces "Strange Water Hyacinth", a multidisciplinary art exhibition by "Salad Khaek" collective who, under the gallery's first mentorship program, "Curating the Future: Art and Ecology", were supported by Vipash Purichanont (on-the-ground mentor) and Patrick Flores (guest mentor).
Strange Water Hyacinth explores the relationship between Bangkok's Muslim communities, waterways and urban transformation through the history of the Khaek Phae, considered among the early roots of Muslim communities who moved and resettled along the Chao Phraya River basin following the fall of Ayutthaya. In areas such as Bang O, their ways of life became closely tied to the water as a mode of travel and source of livelihood. Today, Bang O and its surrounding communities face growing tensions and uncertainties brought about by the expansion of capital, state-led development policies and cultural shifts that may alter long-established community structures.
Strange Water Hyacinth developed through fieldwork that involved walking and observation, conversations with community residents, archival research, and the recording of images and interviews. The material, interpreted and reconfigured through painting, sculpture, installation, writing and moving images, reflects communal memory, movement and relationships with waterways. Situating these stories within the broader formation of Bangkok as a city shaped by people of diverse ethnic backgrounds, the exhibition opens dialogue around forms of urban development that take into account local histories and the cultural values of communities that continue to inhabit these spaces.
Salad Khaek is an art and cultural practice collective bringing together artists, curators, archaeologists and architects. The collective takes its name from salad khaek, a dish that brings together ingredients from different cultural origins into a distinctive yet harmonious combination.
Curator Danish Seksan (b. 1995, Bangkok) is a curator and cultural practitioner whose interests centre on social transformation, overlooked or underrepresented historical narratives, relationships between communities and their surroundings, and the ways contemporary global structures shape and transform everyday life.
information provided by event organizer
