Fibre in Tension

Fibre in Tension is a collaborative installation by artists Bryan Mew and Sarah Ong exploring the interplay between materiality, gesture, and light. The project brings together paper, ink, bamboo, and illumination as symbolic and physical agents of tension: bending, stretching, and intersecting across space.

The installation transforms Airspace Project’s Deep Space into an immersive environment where light behaves as both structure and disruption. Bamboo frameworks and suspended paper forms are threaded and pierced by beams of projected light, shifting between fragility and force. The works also explore renewal and transformation, giving new life to materials drawn from the artists’ existing practices, with bamboo and inked paper repurposed and reimagined within the installation.

The materials displayed are deeply rooted in East and Southeast Asian traditions, reflecting the artists’ shared diasporic heritage, translating notions of cultural resilience, adaptability, and the act of making into a spatial experience.