The culmination of activities which arrives at Many Waters to Cross spans almost a decade. Dennis Tan performed the final act of the work on the beach with the boat chainsawed in half. The last act was as much a practical conclusion to a deadline, a solution to the building constraint of the museum for the work to be displayed and a ceremony of closure to turbulent years of art making. The monumental undertaking of this work by Tan coincidentally mirrors the story of Singapore still unfolding on the impetus for change, sacrifices and reflection. When the curator, John Tung, then at the Singapore Art Museum, approached Tan to discuss the possibility of commissioning a work for the Singapore Biennale 2019, Tan thought he had already come to the end of his boat period, which was the years just before he relocated to Tokyo. The commission suggests that a kolek, a specific wooden sailboat once typical in Singapore waters, now only seen in neighbouring Riau islands of Indonesia, be built. Almost a decade before, in 2010, Dennis Tan embarked on a trip to Riau to observe the sailing of the kolek. Between 7 to 12 men are acrobatically suspended with ropes rigged from the mast (trapeze), and a helmsman steers a long oar as a rudder. Witnessing the magnificence of the yellow sails gracefully gliding across the green water above a thin hull line where the sailors stood and balanced elicits a sensory feast of awe and a moment of pure wonder. Tan immediately took an interest in the sailing craft, and the encounter marked the beginning of several trips to Keban, Riau, where he was hosted kindly by a family culturally intertwined with the legacy of racing kolek. In Riau, Tan observed that the construction of the kolek and all the other water crafts around is done entirely by hand with minimal tools and with natural materials from the land. Setting themselves apart from conventional wooden boat builders, these indigenous artisans eschew working with straight stock. They accomplish a remarkable feat by skillfully shaping carefully selected green wood with an inherent organic irregularity into a harmonious symmetry. Through that methodology of crafting boats, a profound symbiotic relationship between humans and the environment revealed itself to Tan. Another notable departure lies in the construction sequence: the kolek is built with the hull first, followed by the insertion of ribs to adjust the curvature, diverging from the traditional practice of adding cladding after the frame. This conceptual divergence intrigues Tan, which read its implication as form after structure, an apt opposing precept of the conceptual-centric prioritising order of ideas before form generation in the art-making process. Interestingly, in historical context, these koleks showcased exceptional speed surpassing their Western counterparts, winning bets in recorded races and humbling challengers. As standalone entities, koleks embody the essence of specific objects, possessing individuality and the capacity to occupy space as autonomous works of art.