Nasher Public: Narong Tintamusik

featuring an exhibition score by Saun Santipreecha

May 30 - September 20, 2026
Public Gallery
Nasher Sculpture Center
Dallas, TX

In a dystopian future where humankind is fighting for survival after ecological and infrastructural collapse, Dallas-based artist Narong Tintamusik envisages a resourceful group of Thai nomads who use their knowledge of traditional crafts, cuisine, and Buddhist-animist beliefs to create a ritual oasis. The sonic and sculptural environment in the Nasher’s Public Gallery transports visitors into this peaceful setting, which Tintamusik imagines that the nomads have constructed from copper and brass mesh left over from industrial filtration and construction, sensing the material’s protective and purifying properties.

Tintamusik’s installation, titled Residue, fuses Thai weaving and textile dying techniques—both traditionally done by women—with basketry and enameling traditions that the artist learned at craft schools in Tennessee and Colorado. The form of the hanging element echoes the layered trunk of a banana tree that provides food and shelter in the backyard of Tintamusik’s parents’ home in Bangkok, while the pillows and mats on the ground recall reed mats found in domestic and devotional spaces. The colorful surface of the metal has been patinated with the acid from Thai food ingredients like coconut milk, lime juice, fish sauce, and shrimp paste, then left exposed to light and weather over several months in Tintamusik’s backyard, imbuing the material with energy from the food and the sun. This unique process was developed by the artist through a combination of the culinary knowledge passed on by his mother, a chef, and as learned in his first career as a biologist.

Sounds from the artist’s working process were incorporated into a layered arrangement created in collaboration with the composer Saun Santipreecha, which rises out of speakers embedded in the floors around the perimeter of the Public Gallery. The spatial qualities of the sound mirror the sculptures’ holistic use of the space from the floor to the ceiling; the dangling metal tendrils of the suspended central coil can be imagined as antennae reaching down to the source of the music. Tintamusik describes his collaboration with Santipreecha as “a reconnection for both of us, as diasporic Thai artists, to meet in this shared space of the future, drawing from the present and the past.” The resulting EP, titled residues_remnants_rituals, blends environmental recordings with sonic fragments and samples ranging from electronic beats, to woodwinds, to traditional Thai instruments, as well as vocals, giving the impression of excavated memories. Across its aural and visual components, Residues articulates an intricate topology that connects distant places, speculative futures and ecological realities, and craft traditions with biological science.

Nasher Public: Narong Tintamusikis curated by Curatorial Assistant Sydney Smith.

Exhibition photography by Kevin Todora.