Scent of Krathum was commissioned by the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) for Melting Map, a group exhibition exploring the relationship between communities along the Buri Rom Canal in Bangkok’s eastern district of Prawet and contemporary art.

The project engages the dump site community of On Nut 86 in Prawet as a layered landscape where human and nonhuman “submerged perspectives” come into view. Beginning with the materiality of the once-abundant but now scarce Krathum tree, I developed a natural perfume—a sensory material that reveals the area’s socio-ecological transformations. Smell becomes a carrier of history: while the landfill permeates daily life with its persistent odor, the scent of Krathum recalls a way of life largely erased.

Once a rural, agricultural landscape, Prawet has rapidly transformed to accommodate Bangkok’s eastern expansion, becoming home to one of the city’s largest landfills and surrounding informal settlements. The project involves collaboration with the dump site community of On Nut 86 in Prawet to create a series of handmade paper from local waste. Through drawing and mixed-media collages, participants collectively reimagined the landfill from their own perspectives.