Chaw Ei and I with the help of dozens of tireless and dedicated volunteers from both the Biennale and the Burmese community in Singapore made the installation you see above. In the end, the construction the installation, September Sweetness, took 14 days, sometimes 12 hours per day, 45 people, 5.5 tons of sugar, 8 gas tanks, 4 electric stoves, 4 gas stoves, a forklift, and countless bee stings and ant bites to complete.

The images can be viewed in a flickr set as well as an audio tour in mp3 format.

Perhaps the most valuable experience was the process. I know this sounds cliche, but in this case, more than any other project I've been involved with to date, it could not be truer. Both Chaw Ei and I conceived of this project nearly seven months ago, inspired in some way by a picture of a decaying pagoda in Bagan, Myanmar, taken in 1989 by design critic William Drentel, who had posted his images on Design Observer. The image was uncanny as if it were dusted in confectionery sugar. I had met curator Joselina Cruz during her research for the SB2008 in Vietnam and proposed the idea of reconstructing a temple at the Biennale in sugar.

...more to come