Weevils in Rice (มอด มอด) (2026)​

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Kanokwan Sutthang pays attention to the small mundane things often overlooked by most, such as weeds or pests, that are typically regarded as human adversaries destined for eradication.

In the rice industry, absolute purity is the ultimate ideal. By human definition, the "weevil," a small insect that naturally thrives in the grain, thus acts as a disruptive agent, unsettling the system and challenging human hyper-obsession with cleanliness.

This exhibition explores the tension between the organic and the industrial. The drawings and paintings depict various processes of refining, purifying, and excluding, ranging from the gentlest interventions to the harshest. From illustrations of intimate acts of hand-washing rice to depictions of fumigation tablets, and collages of materials like muslin cloth or perforated metal sheets, these forms all suggest modes of filtration and segregation. 

On the upper floor, a video installation created in collaboration with several young Isan thinkers weaves together local rice folklore, traditional Su Kwan Khao blessing ritual chants, and "anti-weevil" spells that do not seek destruction, but rather a negotiation for coexistence with what is perceived as antagonistic.

With gentle language and sincere gestures, the artist invites us to contemplate our coexistence with other living beings while questioning the "politics of exclusions" and the "ideal purity," concepts that are not confined to the realm of rice, but permeate every fiber of existence: in the domestic, in the political, and within endlessly recurring structures.