Installation Art Kota Kinabalu 13

The 13th Installation Art Kota Kinabalu ran from 16 to 20 September 2026 on the Segama Waterfront Boardwalk. Our piece was called What The Tide Give Back, and it was made from the same waste we pull out of the water every month.

The floor was laid with eco pavers, hexagons and squares cast by hand. Overhead hung strings of discs we call raindrops, made from coasters and salvaged CDs, so that the whole structure moved and caught the light when the wind came off the sea. Altogether the installation took 316 pieces: 118 hexagon bricks, 20 square bricks, 42 strings of raindrops, and 136 coasters and discs.

Students from UNITAR, volunteers from USCF, members of the public who simply turned up, and our own team cast, cut, strung and carried every piece.

Over five days 1,884 people walked through it. Friday was the heaviest, 668 visitors, with 376 of them arriving between late afternoon and night. Our crew logged visitors from Australia, China, Pakistan, Korea, Spain, Japan, Denmark, Russia and India, among others. For most of them it was the first time they had stood inside something built from the rubbish that washes up on Sabah's shores.