In 2024, I completed Garden of Clouds, a large-scale embroidered installation for Tok Eats café in Taipei City, Taiwan. This 25′ x 20′ x 6′ suspended work hovers above visitors, transforming the interior space into an imagined cloud made of flowers. The project presented a unique challenge: the installation was mapped out and installed by a team in Taipei while I remained in Toronto, consulting daily over Zoom and phone calls to guide the process from thousands of miles away.
Working with Foison Art, I created Garden of Clouds through an unusual collaborative process. While I developed the concept, created all the embroidered elements, and designed the overall composition in my Toronto studio, the actual installation happened half a world away. Each day during the installation period, I joined the team via video call, watching as they positioned pieces, discussing adjustments, and problem-solving together across time zones.
This long-distance collaboration required trust, clear communication, and meticulous planning. Process drawings and installation tests became essential tools for ensuring the final work would match my vision. Looking at those initial drawings now alongside the completed installation, I’m pleased with how closely the piece corresponds to what I imagined.
After the installation was complete, I flew to Taipei for the opening event—my first opportunity to see the work in person and experience it as visitors would. Standing beneath Garden of Clouds in the café, watching how it transformed the space and how people moved underneath it, was deeply rewarding after months of viewing it only through screens.
During the opening, I discussed how the work was made and gave a small demonstration showing two crucial aspects of my technique: how the water-soluble stabilizer fabric dissolves, leaving only the stitched lines, and how the pieces are shaped using heat to create their final three-dimensional forms. These demonstrations help demystify the process and reveal the technical innovation behind what appears to be impossibly delicate floating embroidery.
The trip also allowed me to explore Taipei—a city I’d never visited before. Experiencing the local culture, architecture, and energy of the place where my work now resides added another layer of meaning to the project.
The concept behind Garden of Clouds merges two natural phenomena: the ephemeral, floating quality of clouds with the organic forms of flowers. By rendering flowers in a way that accumulates into a cloud-like mass suspended overhead, the installation creates a surreal, dreamlike environment. Visitors to Tok Eats café move beneath this floating garden, experiencing the space from an inverted perspective—looking up at flowers rather than down at them.
The scale of the work—25 feet by 20 feet—allows it to become an architectural element within the café, defining the space and creating an atmosphere of wonder and escape. The lace-like quality of the embroidered pieces allows light to filter through, casting delicate shadows and maintaining visual connection between different areas of the space.
Throughout this blog post are process drawings and test pieces that show the development of Garden of Clouds. These studies reveal how individual embroidered elements were designed, how the overall composition was planned, and how technical challenges were addressed before installation.
Garden of Clouds represents both a technical achievement and a new model for collaboration. Creating large-scale site-specific work for international locations presents logistical challenges, but also opens possibilities for bringing work to audiences who might never encounter it otherwise.
I’m grateful to Foison Art for their partnership, to Tok Eats for commissioning this work, and to the installation team who brought my vision to life with such care and precision.
Garden of Clouds, 2024
Thread, machine embroidery
25′ x 20′ x 6′
Commissioned by: Tok Eats, Taipei City, Taiwan
Facilitated by Foison Art
