Reflecting on the conclusion of my first year in the MFA program at UPenn, I found it challenging to adjust to the cadence of school. In a context of speed that yields the rapid prototyping of ideas, forms, and materials, it was a struggle to present work that may have already contained outdated or vestigial ideas by the time a critique or review session occurred. But it was also edifying to understand what elements are continuous as a work develops and what elements become vestigial, becoming clunky or unnecessary, as development occurs.

This year, I built upon my initial encounter with Bidong island in the summer of 2023, before school had started. At the beginning of school, I had created sketches and plans for sculptures that attempted to articulate being on the island, however, by the end of this school year, I had created work about being around or in distance to the island, in both psychic, physical and temporal terms. To encircle the island rather than be upon it.

I created sculptures comprised of salt in the form of a pair of Yamaha 150 outboard motors that powered my journey to Bidong from the shores of Malaysia. These sculptures degrade over time as they collect ambient moisture from the air and from water vapour that is piped into them. A process that parallels salt water corrosion from the sea, except now with fresh water.