New Storefront exhibition examines the impacts of Thailand’s complex energy networks

This month in New York City, the Storefront for Art and Architecture is hosting the final exhibition in its research series Swamplands, Jingru (Cyan) Cheng and Chen Zhan’s investigation into Thailand’s energy infrastructure network that is part of a focus on the effects of global energy networks on Indigenous populations worldwide.

In How Much Wattage Is One Handbreadth Of Water?, Cheng and Zhan say they will "delve into the intertwined dynamics of resource extraction and the impact of industrial processes on both local environments and global networks" using documentary evidence of the Lao PDR-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project as a case study. 

The exhibition title refers to a "handbreadth of water," the amount the water level drops daily in Thailand’s Vajiralongkorn Dam Reservoir, which unironically supplies power to the quasi-natural Jewel Rain Vortex feature at Changi Airport in Singapore. Cheng won the Wheelwright Prize in 2023 for her work surrounding the ecological consequences of sandy environments to architecture. Her new work in How Much Wattage Is One Handbreadth Of Water? will be on view through April 19th, 2025.