Boedi Widjaja collaborated with a geneticist to synthesize a hybrid DNA—combining a segment of his Y-chromosome, the chloroplast of the Chinese parasol tree (his grandfather’s namesake), and an encoded text. This chimeric DNA of person, plant, and poetry became a biomolecular script, tracing his familial histories of migration across lands and seas.

Installed at Singapore’s historic Mount Faber, facing Java—Boedi’s birthplace—the work was activated through an interactive ritual. The DNA was dissolved in ink, which visitors used to mark soil at the foot of the installation. Three signal flags encoded the artwork’s title in visual ciphers, referencing a Morse code-based system devised by the artist. At the exhibition’s close, the soil was returned to its original hole—a symbolic gesture of re-rooting to the land.