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.
About the artist
Narong Tintamusik is a Thai-American artist and material researcher based in Dallas, Texas. His interdisciplinary practice explores personal and collective survival through painting, sculpture, wearables, and installation, all shaped by a craft-centered approach. Drawing from Thai heritage, queer identity, Buddhist-animist cosmology, and a former career in biological sciences, his work engages with themes of infrastructural collapse, cultural assimilation, spiritual disconnection, and systemic barriers to care. He asks: how can we look beyond material systems of value toward deeper forms of connection, attention, and nourishment?
Tintamusik earned his MFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Drawing and Painting from the University of North Texas in 2025. His work has been shown at Ivester Contemporary, Daisha Board Gallery, Stove Works, and Tarleton State University. He is the recipient of awards including the DeGoyler Memorial Fund (Dallas Museum of Art) and the Puffin Foundation Grant. Tintamusik has also participated in residencies and workshops at Penland School of Craft, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and Anderson Ranch Arts Center.
About Saun Santipreecha
Saun Santipreecha (b. 1989, Thailand) is an award-winning composer working in film, media, and installation art.
His compositional work in film and television—many of which he worked on under the former pseudonym S. Peace Nistades—has been screened in over thirty film festivals worldwide including the Cannes Film Festival as well as at New York, Paris, and LA Fashion Weeks. In addition to his own feature film scores, he has worked in numerous capacities in the music department for a number of composers including John Debney, Danny Elfman, The Newton Brothers, and Abel Korzeniowski. As an artist, he has been featured in solo exhibitions at Reisig and Taylor Contemporary in Los Angeles, CA (2023, 2024) as well as in Rome, Italy (2024). In 2024, he was commissioned to create a sound and sculpture installation in the ADN East German guardhouse at the Wende Museum. His work has also been in various group exhibitions in South Korea, New York and Los Angeles.
He is based in Los Angeles and continues to work with filmmakers, artists, and musicians on independent and commissioned projects.