Set in the Napa Sea in Shangri-La, China, The Captivity of the Holy Lake stages the barley rack: an ancient tool for drying crops. These symbolic structures play an important role in local celebrations and religious ceremonies. The project also explores the Napa Sea, a landscape that embodies two states as a result of seasonal change: grassland and lake. Napa Sea is usually a grassland, but from July to September every year, the water accumulates in the grass and forms a series of lakes. Locals refer to these lakes as the "sea".

Inspired by a trip to the region, the project reflects on how local herders have privatised the natural grassland, fenced it off, divided and packaged it into landscapes to be sold for profit - nature is mapped out in terms of routes and scopes, and the barley rack, an artefact of man, is transformed into a consumed 'natural' object.

The project discusses the longstanding state of privatisation and confinement of nature by mankind, and the transformative relationship between man-made objects and natural landscapes. The reimagined, wrapped ‘barley rack’ embodies wet and dry states, referencing the seasons of the grassland and symbolising the passage of time whereby mankind observes the gradual demise of nature and its eventual reduction to deteriorating consumer goods - the structure is made from artificial waste products such as water pipes and foam boards. The music is based on the rhythm of wind chimes (called “Dawa”), which is unique to the Tibetan region, while the projected animation switches repeatedly between dry and wet states, according to the rhythm of the wind chimes.