Detention, 2021-2022
Detention Chair, 2021 Concrete, Children’s Clothing/Stuffed Animals, Galvanized Steel, Epoxy. 17” x 21” x 40”.
Detail Image: Side of the chair showing the trapped artifacts of a childhood. As children in immigration detention centers are forced to sleep on the ground, their innocence is slowly trapped forever.
Detail Image: Chain link fence serves as the back of the chair, mimicking the hastily-constructed detention centers separating families.
In hastily constructed facilities, immigrant families are detained and separated in barbaric acts of policing by the US. Families are forced to sleep on concrete floors, trapped by chain link fencing. This chair explores the loss of childhood innocence, focusing attention to the issue of these detention centers set up by ICE.
Donating My Toys for Tax Deductions
Your existence was a cushion's impression filling back in
From the time I sat next to you in awe.
I do not remember what I said to you in my dream
But I remember we should've held hands.
You were cursed from the start and I am so sorry for that.
There was no meal to share since you grew up too fast.
I wonder if you were me.
There is a balance between remembering and seeking
Or else I do not know where I could be.
The idea you left has fled but I do still feel
That growing up so fast has always happened.
Maybe soon we can get to know each other
As if we had held hands.
This game of hide and seek you play
Might be the only thing keeping me here.
Give me time to think and look.
I promise I’ll capture you,
Us,
Me, one day,
In a sort of material way.
I will keep the cushion next to you free.
