Finding the Estuary
Wood, brass nails, mulberry paper, reed, gesso, hemp rope, and cast iron
Dimensions: 10 × 4 ft 3 in × 5 ft 3 in
2026Finding the Estuary (2026) takes the form of a half-ship built into a wall, made of salvaged timber, mulberry paper from Wenzhou, hemp rope, and a sand-cast iron anchor. It passes through the wall. The hull—scarred timber, cast iron—holds itself against gravity, a fragile balance sustained by its own frame. Through research into shipwreck sites near my hometown, Wenzhou, and the history of traditional Chinese wooden junk, the work traces the traumatic, sometimes masochistic attachment between the diasporic subject and the motherland, and the desire to reclaim oneself from the wound that continues to bind them to the place they once left.