Paintings and Drawings
Suitcase Art Project in Support of Immigrant/Asylum-Seeker/Refugee Rights
The following images are documentation of my art project for the NYC Deportee Suitcase protest action on
July 26, 2018. The action's premise was to create a suitcase that you would pack for someone who is going to be deported. Since one of the guidelines from the Immigration Department is that the bag packed for a deportee cannot weigh over twenty-five pounds, artists were to adhere to that restriction as well. Suitcases could be created for a loved one, a stranger, an imaginary person. . . . My choice was the last of these: a six-month-old infant girl who was taken from her asylum-seeking parents. Since the child would not be able to carry her suitcase, I attached wings to it so that it could carry her. I created a book with images and text for her as a sort of guide for someone who does not know her name or any language to speak. The significance of the objects packed inside the suitcase was also explained in the book. As absurd as the prospect of deporting an infant sounds, it sadly, and appallingly, does not veer far from the truth.
July 26, 2018. The action's premise was to create a suitcase that you would pack for someone who is going to be deported. Since one of the guidelines from the Immigration Department is that the bag packed for a deportee cannot weigh over twenty-five pounds, artists were to adhere to that restriction as well. Suitcases could be created for a loved one, a stranger, an imaginary person. . . . My choice was the last of these: a six-month-old infant girl who was taken from her asylum-seeking parents. Since the child would not be able to carry her suitcase, I attached wings to it so that it could carry her. I created a book with images and text for her as a sort of guide for someone who does not know her name or any language to speak. The significance of the objects packed inside the suitcase was also explained in the book. As absurd as the prospect of deporting an infant sounds, it sadly, and appallingly, does not veer far from the truth.