Lifecycle of Myth: the instability of Space & finding abundance at the threshold of Time

Installed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art for the Centennial Celebration in May 2023. Curated by Adriel Luis.

Bamboo, Banana Leaves, Hempcrete, Dyed Twines, and Ropes 

​Watch sāgar and Adriel talk about the project HERE!
Learn more about the project HERE! 

Using plants as a metaphor for identity, this project explores the transition of bamboo from Asia to America as it relates to the entropy of Asian American multiplicities. Concurrently, the decay of organic material playfully flaunts time in the face of museum objects which are unable to experience its passage. In creating a third space of existence, its own ecology and symbiosis, where do these sculptures now belong? Which landscape can it call home? 

These structures engage materiality and challenge the notion of time by being both ephemeral and enduring. The bamboo and banana leaves will be mulched at the conclusion of the Centennial Festival and will therefore continue to live on through the Smithsonian gardens. The construction of the structures required laboring fluidly between states of collapse and stability. In their current state, the lines and shapes created evoke performative gestures and motion that connect to elements of dance. The integrity of the structures lies in a delicate state of being lightweight and sturdy, flexible yet rigid, and balanced while unstable.