“āmā” is a contemporary sculpture that explores the theme of restriction through my grandmother’s experience in an ICU hospital room. ICU confinement is often described as one of the most distressing experiences a person can endure—a space that imposes both physical and psychological claustrophobia. When my grandmother was hospitalized due to her declining health, I sought to document her experience in a way that extended beyond traditional storytelling.

I gave her a point-and-shoot film camera and instructed her to press the shutter whenever she felt like it. The developed photos were highly repetitive—inevitably so, as she was confined to her bed, surrounded by the same static environment. The only variations came when she turned her camera toward different corners of the room, capturing subtle shifts within an otherwise unchanging space.

To translate this experience into a physical form, I juxtaposed it with an entirely unrelated yet conceptually fitting inspiration: the layered sticker culture found in urban spaces. I printed my grandmother’s photos onto sticker paper and, given the recurring imagery, aligned overlapping elements across multiple images. The more frequently she photographed a specific corner, the denser the stickers became, reinforcing the idea of inescapable monotony.

These stickers were then applied to a series of vertical aluminum tubes, which were distressed with salt and lacquer thinner—reminiscent of the street poles where layers of stickers accumulate chaotically over time. By clustering the tubes together, the sculpture takes on a physically restrictive presence, evoking the oppressive nature of the ICU. However, the contrast between the sticker-covered poles—objects commonly found in open, public spaces—and the experience of confinement introduces a tension. The poles, typically associated with the freedom of walking through a city, now symbolize immobility, emphasizing the stark contrast between movement and restriction.

The sculpture is anchored by a base of wood and raw cement, reinforcing a brutalist aesthetic that embodies the emotional weight of confinement and isolation. Through this piece, I seek to materialize my grandmother’s experience—repetitive yet layered, isolating yet expressive—while drawing parallels to the way physical and psychological spaces, both personal and public, impose invisible boundaries on those within them.