What are you doing? Why did you decide to make this? Why here? How did you get them in the ocean? How long have you been doing this? Really?!

These are just a few but the most frequently asked questions I get whenever I am at the beach or in fields installing another variation of No Olvidado. What?

No Olvidado is a decades long series of transient installations referencing the deaths of migrants, immigrants and refugees. The original motivation was a story about volunteers in Arizona who put  makeshift crosses in the desert to mark the locations where  unidentified bodies were found. I thought then, and still think of this as a deeply moving act of reverence.

The installations are always a challenge: located  in remote often isolated sites and relying on changing weather or elements.

Here you can see that my choice of site and time of day are working:  shadows, enough surf to cover my footprints and an ominous background. The “cute” red shovel is plastic so that the most damage it can inflict on me is bruises not open wounds.

Always watch your back…..

Here you can see the bases which I bury in the sand to  hold the sculptures in place as well as preventing them from washing out to sea easily!!

And sometimes the ocean almost wins!!

Below is one of multiple installations I created while in residency at Peters Valley, NJ. Same theme and of course we can’t help but think of all those refugees moving thru eastern Europe today. All of the installations mirror  the geography of the original motivating events.

Coming soon….Perilous Journeys II