Notes from Waterproof Exhibitions to Notes on Borrowed Rooms by Pam Virada
When we decided to join BKKABF this year, we weren’t only thinking about publishing our own work but also about reconnecting with friends we used to work with.
Pam is one of those friends we’ve been quietly keeping an eye on since we curated her publication for our exhibition in 2018. She’s now based in Amsterdam and works across various artistic mediums.
With Pam, we’ve always been drawn to her sense of imagery. Looking at her work gives a sensory feeling beyond the image itself—a smell in the air, the calm sound of waves, a warm presence. Her images assures us she knows what she’s seeking. The body of work leads us not so much through words, but through looking.
There was a tea-serving event she conceived as part of an exhibition in Bangkok. We missed it because of the rain, yet we kept our curiosity about what that experience might have been like. That interest led us to ask her to revisit it again, this time in the form of an artist’s book.
Notes on Borrowed Rooms started from there. It became a set of photographs and a tea bag taken from hotel rooms. The photographs are half-hidden within glassine paper, with a tea bag placed on top. Everything is encased in a small box, sized to fit in one hand, containing bits and pieces of the experience. The atmosphere and a different kind of gravity lingers within the relation between the teabags and those photographs. Time seems to hold still.
We asked Pam a few questions so people can get to know her and what she’s interested in a bit more—and here are her answers.
Could you tell us your name, share where you’re based, and tell us about your practice and areas of interest?
Pam Virada, based in Amsterdam. I’m an artist attuning to the cinematic and the temporal in domestic spheres.
How have you been lately? What is your current obsession?
Currently I'm thinking a lot about the distinction between creative work and hobby.
Can you tell us about some aspects about our collaborative publication?
The work Notes on Borrowed Rooms, which I am collaborating with Waterproof Exhibitions, is a boxed collection of objects and prints. It expands on an earlier project, Dusty Days, 2025, where I facilitated tea brewed from teabags gathered from various hotel rooms.
Could you share a bit about your approach as an artist/designer?
When we first worked together nearly a decade ago, my practice lived mostly in printed matter such as ephemera and photographic prints, approaching things more from the perspective of a graphic designer or photographer. Now my medium has become more spatial and expanded, though the ephemerality of print still remains with me. I once thought that I already had moved from ‘graphic designer’ to ‘artist,’ but I realised that this distinction is mostly subjective, and perhaps I'm still circling around the same subjectivities as a decade ago.
What drives you or still keeps you in your practice?
Just doing it day by day.