Location: Bee Garden

“Held & Holding” is a site-responsive installation of stacked ceramic sculptures inspired by the artist’s recurring theme of the guagua, a Kichwa word meaning baby or child. Balancing and supporting one another, the forms evoke caregiving, kinship, and interdependence.  

Created for the Queens Botanical Garden, the sculptures draw inspiration from wetland plants and organic forms, connecting the landscapes of Queens with those of the artist’s native Ecuador. Their vertical formations suggest growth and resilience, echoing the ways people, plants, and cultures take root and transform over time. 

Born in Ecuador to Chinese parents and based in New York City, Chong explores migration, ecology, and language through painting, sculpture, installation, and public art. Across her practice, she works through layers of material, memory, history, and cultural exchange, tracing the shared threads of humanity that connect people, places, and generations.  

In “Held & Holding,” the stacked forms reflect how knowledge and traditions are carried forward, each generation building upon the foundations laid by those who came before. The installation is also reminding us that, like the garden itself, we flourish through connection.