Spirits Melt to Flesh is a group exhibition of moving image, sound, sculpture and photography at Bangkok Kunsthalle. Curated by Sam I-shan, it brings together eight artists from across Asia in installations made to respond to the building’s unfinished spaces. The exhibition runs from June 5 to October 4, 2026, on levels 4 and 5 of Bangkok Kunsthalle.
The participating artists are Anthony Chin, Daniel Hui, Hee Sue Kwon, Hsu Che-Yu, Chen Wan-Yin, Lieko Shiga, Soe Yu Nwe and Taiki Sakpisit. Their works come from practices based in Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Myanmar and Thailand. Rather than presenting a single medium or national viewpoint, the exhibition connects different ways of working through the shared conditions of the venue.
What the exhibition explores
The official exhibition text describes Bangkok Kunsthalle as a container for stories, voices and encounters. Light and darkness change across the raw rooms, while sound and moving images make visitors aware of their own bodies and the time spent inside each work. Sculpture and photography add physical and still-image counterpoints to those changing effects.
The works place regional histories beside personal experience. They move between bodies and otherworldly figures, documented lives and imagined beings, and familiar myths and lesser-heard narratives. This makes the exhibition less a survey of one subject than a sequence of perspectives on realities that can be sensed without being completely understood.
That curatorial idea is especially suited to works involving sound and projected images. A visitor may hear one installation before seeing it or carry a voice from one floor into the next. The exhibition’s title points to this movement between the intangible and the bodily: spirits, memories and stories take on material form through images, objects, vibration and space.
Two works highlighted by the organisers
Taiki Sakpisit’s Maelstrom is a durational sound and kinetic installation. It focuses on narratives surrounding Mae Nak and Somdet To, two figures with very different places in Thai belief and cultural memory. Mae Nak is known through stories of a devoted wife, protective mother and fierce spirit, while Somdet To is revered as a monk associated with spiritual powers and Thailand’s amulet and sacred-image traditions. Bringing these narratives into a sound-based work places folklore, devotion and the circulation of religious images in the same field of attention.
Lieko Shiga’s Blind Date began in Bangkok in 2009. Shiga became interested in the glances exchanged with strangers riding on the back seats of motorbikes. Working with a Thai friend and translator, she followed motorbikes and interviewed and photographed more than one hundred couples. For Spirits Melt to Flesh, the full series returns in a newly edited video form.
The project also carries a direct connection to Bangkok’s exhibition history. Shiga produced the original body of work while in the city for TWIST and SHOUT, a Japan Foundation exhibition at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre that included 17 Japanese artists. Its return more than a decade later gives viewers a chance to consider the same photographs and encounters through a different moving-image structure.
Curatorial perspective
Sam I-shan is an independent curator whose work focuses on moving image, photography, art and politics. She has held curatorial roles at National Gallery Singapore, Singapore Art Museum and Esplanade Visual Arts. Her exhibition and film-programming experience spans institutions and festivals across Asia and Europe, with particular attention to experimental film, artist film and Southeast Asian moving-image practice.
That background helps explain the exhibition’s emphasis on how images unfold in time and how viewers meet them in space. Spirits Melt to Flesh is not limited to objects viewed from a fixed position. Its moving-image, sound and kinetic works ask for duration, while its photographic and sculptural elements create pauses and physical anchors across the two floors.
Planning a visit
- Dates: June 5–October 4, 2026
- Hours: 2:00–8:00 p.m.
- Closed: Tuesdays
- Venue: Bangkok Kunsthalle, levels 4 and 5
- Admission: Free
- Official information: Japan Foundation, Bangkok
Allow time for both floors, particularly if you want to experience the moving-image and sound works beyond a quick pass. Because several installations use darkness, projection, reverberation or gradual changes, their structure may only become clear after staying with them for a while.
The official page does not state an accessibility policy, photography policy or reservation requirement. Visitors who need specific access arrangements, or who plan to photograph the exhibition, should confirm those details with Bangkok Kunsthalle before travelling. The official page is also the best place to recheck hours and any programme updates close to the visit.
Why it is worth seeing
Spirits Melt to Flesh offers a substantial regional group exhibition without reducing its artists to a single theme or medium. Its strongest link is the relationship between intangible subjects and the physical conditions of viewing: stories become sound, memories become edited images, and myths enter rooms through light, movement and sculptural form.
The exhibition also makes productive use of Bangkok Kunsthalle itself. The raw architecture is not simply a neutral background; it affects how voices echo, how darkness gathers and how visitors move between levels. For audiences interested in contemporary Asian art, experimental moving image, photography or sound installation, the show provides several distinct entry points while maintaining a coherent curatorial frame.