In Ephemeral Altar of Sea and Story, Tais Rose Wae creates a delicate threshold where memory, sea, and story converge. The work draws on the rhythms of water—its ebb and flow, its capacity to both conceal and reveal—as a metaphor for the way histories and inheritances are carried forward.

Through cotton, paint, and pearls, Wae builds an altar-like surface that holds both fragility and reverence. Each material carries its own symbolism: cotton as a grounding fibre, paint as gesture and trace, pearls as offerings from the sea. Together, they create a field where the personal and ancestral intertwine, honouring what is passed down and what is remade in the present moment.

The piece is both quiet and devotional, inviting viewers to witness how story lives not only in language, but also in form, rhythm, and material.