Strange Water Hyacinth is on view at Nomad Art Residency Bangkok through 24 November 2026. The multidisciplinary exhibition by the Salad Khaek collective examines connections between Bangkok's Muslim communities, waterways and urban transformation through fieldwork, archives, interviews and contemporary art.

Presented by Warin Lab Contemporary, the project was developed through its first Curating the Future: Art and Ecology mentorship programme. Vipash Purichanont served as the on-the-ground mentor and Patrick Flores as guest mentor. Curator Danish Seksan and the collective bring together perspectives from art, archaeology, architecture and cultural practice.

Complete Event Overview

Following the history of Khaek Phae

The exhibition begins with the history of Khaek Phae, communities associated with movement and resettlement along the Chao Phraya River basin after the fall of Ayutthaya. The official description identifies Bang O as one place where daily life became closely tied to water for travel and livelihood. This history provides a lens for considering Bangkok not as a finished city but as a place repeatedly formed by migration, exchange and settlement.

The project does not present the waterway only as scenery. Rivers and canals shape routes, work, neighbourhood relations and access to the city. When infrastructure or land use changes, these relationships can change as well. The exhibition connects current uncertainty around development with memories embedded in communities that may not be visible in conventional accounts of urban growth.

How the research becomes art

Salad Khaek developed the project through walking and observation, conversations with residents, archival research, photography and recorded interviews. The resulting material is reworked through painting, sculpture, installation, writing and moving image. That range of media lets visitors compare different kinds of evidence: a document can establish a date or place, while an artwork can make distance, loss or continuity felt without pretending to be a neutral record.

Visitors should pay attention to the movement between direct research and interpretation. An interview contains a speaker's account; an installation may reorganise that account in space; a painting may isolate a detail that would otherwise be overlooked. The exhibition's value lies partly in keeping these forms in conversation instead of reducing the community to a single image.

The collective and curatorial framework

Salad Khaek describes itself as an art and cultural practice collective of artists, curators, archaeologists and architects. Its name refers to a dish made from ingredients with different cultural origins that combine into a distinctive whole. The metaphor is relevant to a project about Bangkok's layered histories, but the work remains grounded in specific research rather than using diversity as an abstract slogan.

Curator Danish Seksan, born in Bangkok in 1995, focuses on social transformation, underrepresented histories and the relationship between communities and their surroundings. The mentorship structure is also significant. Curating the Future: Art and Ecology positions curating as a process of research, responsibility and exchange, not merely the arrangement of finished objects.

Practical information

• Dates: 10 October to 24 November 2026.
• Venue: Nomad Art Residency Bangkok, 69/1 Soi Charoenrat 30, Khlong Ton Sai, Khlong San, Bangkok 10600.
• Opening times: Thursday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00; closed Monday to Wednesday, as stated on the Thai organiser-provided listing.
• Transport: BTS Khlong San is the rail stop identified by the official listing.
• Admission: The event page does not state a ticket price or booking requirement. Confirm access with the venue before travelling.

Because the exhibition closes on 24 November, visitors should not rely on general venue listings that may remain online afterward. The specific event page and venue channels are the appropriate references for any schedule change.

A useful way to read the exhibition

Begin by identifying which works relate to a named place, person or research method. Then look for connections between the physical qualities of water hyacinth—movement, accumulation and adaptation—and the exhibition's account of communities navigating change. The title can guide attention, but it should not replace the histories and voices presented in the work.

The exhibition is especially relevant to viewers interested in socially engaged art, urban history, ecology and the politics of archives. It asks how a fast-changing city can acknowledge the knowledge of communities whose lives have long been organised around its waterways.

Information was checked on 2 November 2026 against the Bangkok Art City event page carrying information supplied by the organiser.