There are certain conceptual powers in this project, like the relationship of glass to sand, and the idea of putting glass back into the earth, which is where it comes from, which are related to the whole concept of I Am. So there's that one below-surface idea, and then there's these other practical and more pragmatic ideas about how the light functions and the geometry and mathematics behind the reverberation of light from the surface outward.

I was born in a small clapboard house on an island, but I also have certain privileges that I didn't have when I was on the island. So that dichotomy again is actually really crucial.

The way that I Am is designed, it becomes a kind of archipelago, which the Bahamas are.

I think if art has one underlying value, it's that.

Sometimes I'm inspired by the material and sometimes there's an idea that speaks to a material.

I don't really feel pressure. I'm so distracted by what we're doing; I'm doing this four-acre project, it's just absorbing all my attention. Before you know it we're onto the next project, and so on and so forth.

The idea of being in the desert is fundamental, but it's totally relative, and it's about that membrane: the way that one defines self versus the environment.