Programs
in-tangible texts
About in-tangible texts
Launched in February 2026, in-tangible texts is a digital publication in Thai and English featuring commissioned texts by emerging writers from across Southeast Asia, critically engaging contemporary art of this region and their sites of production and display. With close mentorship from established writers, teachers, and editors, invited authors are commissioned to produce texts—essays, poems, personal reflections, interviews, and other modes of critical writing—that draw from authors’ lived experiences and embodied encounters with select artists, artworks, or collections. Written works are commissioned per edition and individually published over the course of several months on in-tangible texts’ online platform. Scroll down to for more information about in-tangible texts‘ writers and mentors.
Invited authors critically interrogate the experience and validity of art, giving focus to ideas that address three main areas of concern: art and its relationship to the human and non-human world; challenging assumptions in socio-political histories; and the innovation of traditional practices and aesthetics. Commissioned texts are exploratory, accessible works that invite new audiences and supporters to engage with Southeast Asian contemporary art and its development.
in-tangible texts publications are developed through a sustained process of focused mentorship, in which emerging writers are given guidance throughout all stages of text development, from pitch proposal to editorial review. New texts are launched at a monthly cadence that prioritizes the full development of high quality work over strict publishing deadlines. Writers are encouraged to work in their preferred language, with final texts published in both Thai and English whenever possible.
Through this program, in-tangible texts aims to offer critical, creative, and historically-grounded discussions on Southeast Asian contemporary art, towards a more robust and rigorous landscape of exhibition and collecting practices in this region.
If you are an emerging writer in Southeast Asia and interested in contributing to in-tangible texts, please contact info@in-tangible.org. Please note, acceptance of pitch submissions is at the sole discretion of the editorial team of in-tangible texts.
Visit the in-tangible texts platform to read more.
Recently Published Texts
13 October 2026
From Bhumibol Dam to Yuam Water Diversion: Exploring the Price of Development “That Cannot Yet Be Counted” Through the Voice of the Sor and the Work of Som Supaparinya
By Chonnicha Thapumin
Drawing on Thai folk song “Sor Nam Thuam Wang Lung” and Som Supaparinya’s exhibition, รู ป ระ ลึก (MO NUM EN TS), at the Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok, Chonnicha’s text examines disparities between official state narratives about the supposed benefits of development and the lived realities of communities impacted by these projects.
15 July 2026
Droplets of Fate: Curating Repair, Reenactment, and Relational Practice in POLLINATION 4
By Kenneth Wong See Huat
Kenneth examines the curatorial process behind “POLLINATION ed. 4: the palms of y/our hands” as a collaborative endeavor of accompaniment, translation, reenactment, and repair between its contributors: co-curators Diana Nway Htwe and Mark Teh, and participating artists Okui Lala, M, Steven Nyi Nyi, and Jae Jae.
Contributors
Writers
Kamonpan Tivawong, Piyathida Inta, Bongkochakron Kampuk, Pearamon Tulavardhana, Techin Rungwattanasophol, Pimpakaporn Pornpeng, Kenneth Wong See Huat, Chonnicha Thapumin
Mentors
Thanavi Chotpradit, Phanu Boonpipattanapong, Cassie Packard, Katherine C. M. Adams, Jirat Prasertsup, Lee Weng-Choy, Blake Palmer
Editorial Team
Zoe Butt is a curator, writer and educator focusing on critically thinking and historically conscious artistic communities, fostering dialogue among cultures of the globalizing souths. In 2025, she was appointed Artistic Director of ‘deCentral’, a forthcoming social enterprise for the arts, opening in Thailand in 2027. Zoe is also the founder of ‘in-tangible institute’.
Zoe holds a PhD by Published Works, Center for Research and Education in Art and Media, University of Westminster, London and is currently also Lead Advisor, Kadist Art Foundation. Previously she was Artistic Director, Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City (2017-2021), Executive Director, Sàn Art, Ho Chi Minh City (2009–2016); Director, International Programs, Long March Project, Beijing (2007–2009); Assistant Curator, Contemporary Asian Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (2001–2007).
Possessing an extensive exhibition, publishing and public-speaking history globally, she has been published by Hatje Cantz; JRP-Ringier; Routledge; Sternberg Press, among others.
Blake Palmer is a writer and cultural critic based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, working primarily on Southeast Asian contemporary art. He is interested in the intersection of culture, power, and art as a vector of sociopolitical critique. His academic work focuses on ecology and indigenous foodways in the Southeast Asian context.
His recent work includes contemporary art analysis for Art Monthly Australasia, Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia, Aura Asia Art Project, and Art & Market, as well as multispecies ethnographic work for e-flux Journal and Ecological Indicators.
Blake is the Program Director of in-tangible institute.
Lee Weng-Choy is an art critic based in Kuala Lumpur. For over twenty years, Lee lived and worked in Singapore, during which time he was Artistic Co-Director of The Substation arts centre for nearly ten years. He has taught at institutions such as the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in recent years, has focused on facilitating writing workshops in cities including Brisbane, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, London, Manila, and Saigon. His essays have appeared in journals such as Afterall and American Historical Review, and in anthologies such as Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art, Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985 and the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Art in Global Asia.
Sponsors
Initiated and organized by in-tangible institute.
Special thanks to our anonymous donors for their support of this platform.
Should you be interested in supporting this initiative, we would love to hear from you! Please contact: info@in-tangible.org.
in-tangible texts is an ongoing digital publication in Thai and English featuring commissioned texts by emerging writers from across Southeast Asia, critically engaging contemporary art of this region and their sites of production and display.
Read texts at: medium.com/@in-tangible_texts
Read about ed. 1 writers, mentors, and texts here
Read about ed. 2 writers, mentors, and texts here