Drifting Canopy 浮荫 (2026)

Translucent 3D-printed PETG, suspended filament, light and projection

Installation dimensions variable

Developed during Tropical Lab 20 in Singapore, Drifting Canopy began with Liu’s encounters with the island’s monkeypod trees (Samanea saman), which shape much of its tropical landscape. Responding to the residency theme TERRA, the work considers these introduced and cultivated trees as part of Singapore’s carefully engineered ecology, and as a point of departure for thinking about the island as a place continually shaped through migration, urban development and cultural exchange.

Suspended translucent 3D-printed fragments gather into an imagined canopy, while their projected shadows extend beyond the physical forms. Together, the canopy and its shadows trace the outline of Singapore, allowing the island to emerge through the relationship between material, light and projection. Bringing organic forms into dialogue with synthetic materials and constructed systems, the work considers how environments and cultures are continually assembled, maintained and transformed through acts of care.

Developed during Tropical Lab 20: TERRA and presented in the residency’s concluding exhibition at LASALLE College of the Art , curated by Helen O’Toole.

All photography by Liu Jiayi unless otherwise stated.