Terrains in the Making

Pam Virada received a grant for the development of new work. Terrains in the Making (working title) is a mixed-media video installation that explores architecture, memory, and displacement through the image of the recontextualised haunted house. Combining 8mm footage of abandoned neo-classical mansions, archival material from the Thai soap opera Baan Sai Tong (translated: House of Sand), and a family narrative of migration, the work traces how ideas of home are constructed and unravel across time and geography. Sand functions as both material and metaphor throughout the installation, shaping sculptural elements including a cast glass-bead projection screen, glass objects, and sand-based incense. These components form a layered spatial environment where moving image, sound, and material structure converge into an immersive reflection on fragility, longing, and belonging.

Pam lives and works between Amsterdam and Bangkok. She graduated from the Sandberg Institute in 2022 and is an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (2026-2028). In her work, she engages the cinematic and the temporal through site-relational works that attune to atmospheric and spatial conditions. By reconfiguring existing narratives through installation, moving image, and ephemeral sculptural work, Virada approaches each medium as a form of expanded cinema. Drawing on hauntological undercurrents, she explores how layered memories, from familial constellations to the socio-political sphere, materialise as ghostly presences. Once invoked, these uncanny yet comforting forces linger in space, offering alternative understandings of time and belonging.