Beloved Ghosts
I began this series as a very personal memorial to loved ones and expressions of my own grief. I made the figures first out of polymer clay and wire, and then as life-sized cement sculptures. I placed them around the city, much like leaving flowers. However, I was reminded quite quickly that I am not alone in my grief, and that our city (like many others) is full of ghosts (some living, many dead, and still more in between). They are swallowed up and violently erased by greed and "progress."
This Violence is often tied directly to landscape, from colonialist genocide and land theft to capitalist destruction of low income communities. Many artists resist this violent erasure by keeping the memories, names, and faces of loved ones visible and alive in our communities.
My intention with this project is to follow in their footsteps, to make visible that we are not alone in our grief, that we have not forgotten our loved ones, and that we will not let their humanity be erased so easily. These figures will continue to pop up around the city...