In this creative experiment, we ask artists to make pieces they know will be destroyed

The Art of Letting Go is an artistic experiment that invites creators to make purely for the sake of creation: free from expectation, judgment, or the pressure to perfect. Participants are asked to select a material, commit to it upon first touch, and craft a piece within a three-hour time limit. At the end of three hours, the piece will be destroyed.

As a new artist, I started this project because I realized that the creative process often gets lost in the chase for perfection. The Art of Letting Go is a space to challenge that mindset—to embrace impermanence, explore spontaneity, and rediscover the joy of making.

Kendra Yee is a Toronto-based artist who brings memories — both real and imagined — to life. She draws from her own experiences and shared stories to create installations that offer new ways of remembering and telling stories.

During her time with the experiment, Yee crafted a dynamic scene using paint, Play-Doh, recycled hair clips, and forks — deconstructing each material and repurposing them in unexpected ways. The result was a playful, textured 3D tile that embodied spontaneity and creative exploration.

There's a kind of whimsy and play in your work that I resonate with deeply.  Do you feel like your interest to learn and be curious made this experiment more enjoyable? Or what were the challenges you faced emotionally while doing the project?

That definitely played a role. I was also a bit intimidated, but it was interesting to observe time's sequence and my engagement with it. The constraints surprised me, yet they also pushed the work in new directions.

What were your thoughts surrounding the idea that the piece would be destroyed at the end of the experiment?

I thought it was a really beautiful place to work with. Because usually, when you're kind of forming something, you're just creating a product. So it's nice to be able to pay attention to that process, watching something build up and then knowing that the project was never really yours to begin with, and then transferring that energy to yourself.

How did you decide on what materials you were going to use?

I was  paying attention to textures and seeing what objects would harmoniously work together but also feel unexpected, hence using the Play-Doh as well as the hair clips and breaking them apart to have them interact together, which brings me back to my ceramic practice. Ceramics is a very textural medium so it was a nice connecting factor to my current practice as an artist. 

I felt like I held a true connection to a lot of the objects that I was pulling. I was thinking and experiencing what I was naturally gravitating towards, which was interesting to think about since there were definitely some objects that I was hesitant on picking up and getting involved into the project.

What objects did you hesitate in using? Why?

I avoided traditional illustration mediums, like the markers and paint pens, since I often default to drawing for self-expression. It felt too easy for this challenge, so I wanted to push myself in a different direction.

When reflecting on the conclusion of this experiment, what elements do you want to incorporate into your day to day practice?

I feel like I came to a conscious awareness of how I build up a piece, which I found moving. To be away from the process in real time helped me understand myself more and my intuitions as an artist. I hope to bring more mindfulness into my practice by truly listening to materials, even unconventional ones. While I typically incorporate them in the final stages of my ceramic work, I'd like to experiment with introducing them earlier in the process.