crystal bi's perfect memory Transforms Dorchester Bay into a Floating Site of Reflection, Rest, and Remembrance
August 11, 2026 – September 11, 2026
Floating public artwork with four years of community ritual culminates in a new addition to the Boston public art landscape
Annual Dream and Rest Activation, Department of Public Imagination, 2025. Photo credit: Nohemi Rodriguez.
Boston (August 3, 2026) – Interdisciplinary artist crystal bi will present perfect memory, a floating public artwork on view in Boston Harbor from August 11 through September 11, 2026, as part of the Boston Public Art Triennial (The Triennial)’s Public Art Accelerator. Anchored just off the Harborwalk at Fox Point Pavilion and Boat Dock on the University of Massachusetts Boston campus, the installation invites visitors into a quiet act of remembrance, imagination, and gratitude through an ethereal sculpture that drifts with the tides.
Unveiling with a public ceremony at Carson Beach on August 10, perfect memory marks the culmination of four years of artist-led public programming centered on rest, dreaming, and collective reflection at one of Boston's most historically significant waterfronts. The annual Dream and Rest Activation honors the legacy of the 1975 "Free the Beach" protest, affirming the
ongoing importance of creating spaces where everyone can gather, rest, and imagine together. Following its outdoor presentation, the sculpture will become the centerpiece of crystal bi's solo exhibition, thousands of horizons, endlessly returning, on view at University Hall Gallery at UMass Boston from September 21 through December 12, 2026.
Constructed from locally harvested bamboo and flowing fabric, perfect memory appears to hover between water and sky. The work embraces the ocean as a place of memory, imagination, and connection across generations, inviting viewers to consider the question: Who has dreamed you here?
Drawing its title from Toni Morrison's essay “The Site of Memory”, the installation explores the relationship between memory and imagination, inspired by Morrison's reflection that "all water has a perfect memory."
"This work asks us to slow down and encounter the harbor differently," said crystal bi. "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."
The installation and related programming emerges from bi's ongoing public art and social practice, which creates collective rituals centered on memory, gratitude, and presence. “For years, crystal bi has cultivated spaces where rest and imagination are honored as necessary foundations for social, political, and personal change—ranging from her Dream and Rest activations at Carson Beach to the Department of Public Imagination with collaborator Dzidzor Azaglo, developed with the Design Studio for Social Intervention (DS4SI). 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,” added Jasper Sanchez, Assistant Curator at the Triennial and Public Art Accelerator program facilitator.
The installation is visible from the UMass Boston Harborwalk daily from dawn to dusk. Throughout the installation run, visitors can also participate in a perfect memory art-making activity at the ICA Boston Art Lab in the Seaport, extending the project's invitation to reflect on memory, ancestry, and collective imagination through hands-on creative practice. Additional public programming on the occasion of perfect memory, are below:
August 10 | 5:00–7:30 PM 4th Annual Dream and Rest Activation & Launch of perfect memory at Carson Beach
August 13 | 6:00–8:00 PM Opening Celebration of perfect memory at Fox Point Pavilion Sunset picnic with optional guided kayak tour offering close-up views of the floating sculpture. Registration here.
For more about the Triennial’s Public Art Accelerator and to stay updated on upcoming programs visit: https://www.thetriennial.org/
ABOUT CRYSTAL BI
crystal bi (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist working in the public realm. Her participatory art projects explore themes of imagination, creative archiving, and belonging. Her practice includes
creating space for dreaming in public, weaving with natural materials, installing interactive sculptures, and sewing translucent fabrics to float on bodies of water.
As a public artist, professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Practicing Methodologies Lead with Design Studio for Social Intervention, and former art educator at Boston Public Schools, crystal works with others to imagine and design new rituals for remembering and envisioning in public space.
crystal has received grants for her public art projects through the Public Art for Spatial Justice and Creative City cohorts at New England Foundation for the Arts, Transformative Public Art Program through the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, Live Arts Boston through The Boston Foundation, Parks Equity + Spatial Justice cohort through Olmsted Now and more. She is currently in the Triennial Public Art Accelerator Cohort, is a 2025 Luminary at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and a 2025 WBUR Maker. Learn more at www.crystal-bi.com and www.departmentofpublicimagination.com. Instagram (@crystalbi_b)
ABOUT BOSTON PUBLIC ART TRIENNIAL
Boston Public Art Triennial is the city’s first and only public art organization dedicated to supporting artists and communities in bold, contemporary, public art. The Triennial’s mission is to foster relationships between artists and the public to create bold public art experiences that open minds, conversations, and spaces across Boston, resulting in a more open, equitable, and vibrant city. For a map of the Triennial sites, please click here.
