PROJECT EXHIBITION FILM ACT PUBLICATION EVENT

DRIFTING BODIES & THE HUMMING OF THE POWER GRID

Singapore Biennale 2025: Pure Intention
#03-06 Blenheim Court, 5 Westbourne Road, Wessex Estate, Singapore
31 October 2025 – 29 March 2026

Field-0 traces the complex relationship between transnational energy networks and indigenous communities. Drifting Bodies uses documentary footage to highlight the sensory contrast between Singapore's Changi Jewel Rain Vortex and Thailand's Vajiralongkorn Reservoir, depicting a complex network linked by a shared hydroelectric power grid. Before the construction of the dam, the area was a dense forest and home to the indigenous Karen hill tribes. Today, many residents live in floating houses that shift each day when the dam releases one handbreadth (about ten centimetres) of water to generate electricity. The project portrays water as a multifaceted force: a source of life, a disruptor, a tool of displacement, and a connector of distant lands.

Alongside the film, The Humming of the Power Grid uses a live feedback instrument crafted from raw aluminium to generate a soundscape evoking the hum of massive power lines cutting through mountainous Laos. Together with fieldwork photography, the project reveals the impacts of green energy and challenges the notion of progress associated with these infrastructures and their iconic locales.

It is particularly fitting to show the work in Singapore, as it examines transnational energy infrastructures linking Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore — specifically a pilot scheme for importing hydropower to Singapore. The project is featured on the cover of The Straits Times, the country’s largest newspaper.

More importantly, we are using the Biennale as a platform to launch a Water Campaign — a fundraising effort to install a rainwater collection and filtration system for indigenous children living inside Thailand’s Vajiralongkorn Dam Reservoir. Learn more about this ongoing effort here.

LINKS

Watch ‘Drifting Bodies’
[4-channel film installation at the Singapore Biennale]

MEDIA
Featured on The Straits Times as one of the four must-see artworks of the Rail Corridor Edition; and on the cover of The Straits Times in print.

ACT
Water Campaign: Clean drinking water for indigenous children in Thailand’s Vajiralongkorn Dam Reservoir

RELATED EVENT
In the Hurricane, On the Land: Forms of Return, Canadian Centre for Architecture x Paul Mellon Centre, London, 2025

RELATED PROJECT
Tracing Sand

CREDITS

Curator: Duncan Bass
Exhibition producer: Rachel Zuzarte and team from Singapore Art Museum (SAM)
Installation photography: SAM and Chen Zhan
Sound Design in collaboration with Shuoxin Tan
Fieldwork in Thailand and Laos facilitated by PuPla Kaewprasert

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Originally commissioned by Storefront for Art and Architecture through the Swamplands open call in partnership with frieze magazine. Research supported by Harvard GSD’s Wheelwright Prize and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

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