to be & to be continued…, August 2025 - April 2026
An outcome of The Guildhouse Collections Project with FABRIK

Learn more about the project and read the artist statement on the Guildhouse website.
See the accompanying catalogue, featuring an essay by Chira Grasby.
Images courtesy of the artist and Lana Adams.

Short description:
This project explores interconnectedness across time and space, where past, present and future weave through multicultural and generational heritage. Rooted in Vietnamese and Buddhist traditions and the living history of FABRIK, the journey unfolded through conversations, quiet gestures and acts of collective making. It reflects a shared experience of navigating fast-paced, productivity-driven lives, where pause becomes a privilege.

Creating, resting and simply being present became profound offerings for ancestors and for all those shaped by lives of constant urgency. Through this work, we continue our ancestors’ unfinished journeys, transforming inherited patterns of busyness into moments of rest, presence and care. It honours the unseen labour and patience behind every process, where non-doing, threading needles, sorting yarns, sweeping floors and observing, is as meaningful as making itself.

What began as a solitary practice gradually expanded into a participatory installation shaped by many hands, echoing ancestral rhythms of continuity and belonging. Formed over six months from materials and memories shared by the community, it stands as a living expression of multicultural memory.

Within this shared space, personal reflection becomes a communal offering. Layer by layer, the work invites us to slow down, breathe and recognise the invisible threads that connect us to place, to one another and to those who came before.