Boat

An Immersive Sculpture

“The river that separates me from my homeland is wide, but I will cross it nevertheless, a reed as my boat.” ―詩經 (or Book of Songs)

Reeds are a temporal material, yet with this giant-scale immersive installation I made from it a vessel that moves through the ages. 

I cut brittle, dead reeds by the frozen pond, and connected them piece by piece until they took up the entirety of a 15’ by 15’ room. The structure forms a loop, forever without a beginning or an end. While it compellingly occupies space because of its scale, it gracefully allows occupancy as viewers are welcome to walk in among the reeds and the shadows.

When I was designing the structure, my greatest challenge was the effect of gravity. The addition of each reed could cause strain on other reeds and break them, or spin the entire structure out of equilibrium. The form of this work is the result of seeking unity of inherent strengths.