This Refugee series of sculptures explores human migration caused by forced displacement, which has given rise to the largest refugee crisis in history. I’ve completed nine Bronze sculptures that are unique to their individual place in the world and I have begun a fifty foot sculpture of the Syrian refugee displacement with 3,000-5,000 figures moving across the landscape. I’ve sculpted each figure individually so that no two are exactly alike.
As I worked, I placed the figures in groupings that reflect the reality of the pictures and stories we are hearing from the refugees who tell of their journey. I chose to sculpt the figures at around 1 1/2 inches tall in order to create a nonrepresentational picture from above or afar. Like the scope of the refugee movement, I want these pieces, at first glance, to appear abstract. It is not until the viewer moves in very close that they are able to distinguish the individual figures within the mass and see the relationships between the figures.
I hope this will encourage the viewer to pause and look carefully at each person while at the same time realizing that the 70 million displaced people worldwide are also not just a mass, but individuals searching for safety and hope for themselves, or their family.
La Bestia
2019, Iron, Bronze, 102 x 4 x 6 ½ in
Somalia
2018, Bronze, 35 x 14 x 2 in
Nigeria
2018, Bronze, 33 x 26 x 2 in
Congo
2017, Bronze, 29 ½ x 23 x 3 in
Myanmar: Rohingya Refugees
2019, Bronze, 42 x 20x 2 ½ in
South Sudan
2017, Bronze, 47 x 27 ½ x 4 ½ in
Lesvos, Greece: The Arrival
2018, Bronze, 5 x 14 x 4in
Pakistan Repatriation Center
2019, Bronze, 41 x 21 x 2 in
Syria Computer Rendition
Bronze, 50ft
Syria Porcelain Sketches
2020
Bronze Sketches
2020
