In this body of work, Jennifer Tee employs an innovative material derived from pineapple offcuts. This low-impact textile is made from the fiber of pineapple leaves—a byproduct from the harvesting process—giving new life to agricultural waste.

Tee’s use of this sculptural fabric resonates with her familial history, evoking legacies of colonial trade routes and migration. At the same time, the material is transfigured through her artistic process. She carves intricate, laser-cut patterns inspired by tampan cloths from Indonesia, embedding motifs such as the tree of life that gesture toward both human and pre-human ancestry. These cloths are first painted, then precisely cut and sewn together. Finally, small glass beads are meticulously stitched onto the surface, glinting like seeds nestled within the trees’ many branches.

Reflecting Tee’s ongoing inquiry into ecological time and inherited knowledge embedded in natural cycles, each piece explores the sessile nature of organisms like trees—rooted in place yet deeply attuned to shifting environmental, human, and cosmic forces.