A floating public art exhibit now moored in Dorchester Bay by UMass Boston is meant to address feelings of grief and healing, according to the artist who created the sculpture and launched it from Carson Beach last Monday (Aug. 10).
The project— dubbed “perfect memory” by the artist who goes by the name “crystal bi”— was inspired by the ocean as a place for spirits, she says.
Measuring 12 feet by 9 feet and standing 10 feet tall, the artwork will be anchored next to the Fox Point Boat Deck and Pavilion until Sept. 11 as part of the fourth annual Dream + Rest Activation organized by the artist’s own organization, called the Department of Public Imagination.
“It’s a personal project,” said bi, who lives in Jamaica Plain and uses lowercase letters for her name and her art. “It came from experiencing a loss and going through a grief process and being really supported by the ocean and going to the ocean every day and just feeling really held by the ocean.”
She said the death of a friend during the height of the Covid pandemic made her loss and grief hard to manage.
“There was no funeral, there was no ceremony, there were no rituals. I couldn’t see any friends or anything like that because it was really deep in the pandemic. I think I was really craving ritual and ceremony and then also feeling a deep connection with the ocean.”
Soon after, bi found herself envisioning a floating sculpture that would speak to her creative and emotional desires. She started with small prototypes, and, thanks to the support of the Boston Triennial Public Art Accelerator and in partnership with the Arts on the Point at UMass Boston, she was able to begin scaling up her installation nine months ago.
“I wanted to do this project, but dream a little bit bigger than I had before,” bi said in an interview. “The first iteration was done with a pop-up mosquito net and translucent fabrics that I had sewn, but it felt really powerful to put it into the ocean. It was always an invitation for people to go to the water that felt different. It felt more reflective.”
Artist crystal bi. Photo by Yarik Bartel
She used EMT conduit frames, locally harvested bamboo, and marine flag fabric to create the piece that now sits in the bay.
Part of that “reflective” feeling comes from bi’s heritage. “My mother is Taiwanese, and something that I grew up with is that there are spirits in the ocean. I felt like I could visit this person’s spirit. I felt like my ancestors were in the ocean.”
She says she wanted to give everyone along the Boston Harborwalk that same experience.
Jasper Sanchez, assistant curator at Boston Triennial, said the work is special, in large part, because of the artist.
“For years, crystal bi has cultivated spaces where rest and imagination are honored as necessary foundations for social, political, and personal change,” said Sanchez. “Perfect memory, an ambitious floating sculpture, represents the culmination of bi’s commitment to creating space for dreaming in public and reimagining what public art can be.”
Said bi: “I hope that people take a second look at the water. Take another moment to wonder what that was and for reflection. Not knowing anything about this connection between past and imagination and memory and imagination or ancestors and spirits, I just hope it creates a deeper connection with the water.”
She added: “This work asks us to slow down and encounter the harbor differently. The floating sculpture becomes a meditation point that interrupts our everyday routines with wonder. It invites us to remember those who dreamed us here, recognize ourselves as part of a lineage of imagination, and consider what dreams we are creating for those who come after us.”
After Sept. 11, perfect memory will be moved inside UMass Boston and will be part of a solo-exhibition at the University Hall Gallery.
