Adrift is suspended in the double-height skylit space that spans between floors eight and nine at VPL Central Library. Made of polished cast stainless steel and translucent cast resin, the sculpture suggests the skeletal form of a vessel or a boat fashioned from pieces of driftwood. The cast resin ribs of the boat’s hull also create the notion of fossilized bones. Seeming to float in the vaulted space, the new artwork is viewable from multiple vantage points—from below on floor eight and from above and the sides on floor nine.
The sculpture connects to the foreshores of the region: the boats used for trade, fishing, and connecting communities on these lands and waters since before recorded history, and the continuing significance of boats and travel to the histories, myths, and narratives told in cultures across the world.