Becoming is an artwork by Suchi Reddy in the City of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, that embodies the transformation every immigrant goes through as they leave their native lands and code switch and adapt to new conditions. Tectonically expressed as a flexing arch form, it offers a gateway that is emblematic of the liminal space that every immigrant occupies and embodies a journey into the unknown and a return to roots in the process of finding a new space to call home.

In the multi-national demographics of Surrey, it was important to propose an artwork that celebrates the process of becoming oneself, expressing the transmutation of people through cultures and lands as an elegant curve that twists and turns, and always returns to the ground, creating an opening for others to traverse, giving them a view of changing colors as they move through it. Sculpted with strands of extruded, anodized aluminum, Becoming is a visual path designed to welcome interaction and generate a sense of wonder.

Fingerprints of Belonging, an accompanying work to Becoming, visualizes Surrey’s diversity through data-driven patterns installed on five utility boxes surrounding the sculpture. The work translates data about languages spoken and ethnicities present in Surrey into visual “fingerprints,” celebrating the unique identity of Surrey’s multicultural community.

The works represent the continued meditation of an immigrant on the intertwined structures of identity and transformation in our communities.