Milk cartons in the USA are objects that are used to aid in the search for missing children, as the side of the carton will typically have a photograph and details of a missing child.

Children are being separated at the border and housed in hotels that are empty due to Covid 19. They are held there by private contractors, then sent back to their country of origin as a means of circumnavigating the asylum laws.

• ‘Shadow Immigration System: Migrant Children Detained In Hotels By Private Contractors’. 2020. NPR.org [online]. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2020/08/20/904027735/shadow-immigration-system-migrant-children-detained-in-hotels-by-private-contrac [accessed 28 Sep 2020].

A kusudama origami is made up of multiple pieces of folded paper and the image above is of a kusudama wall. My aim with this was to give this sculpture some context and using images from last module, I experimented with surfaces and buildings that are being maintained by the migrant workers. I intend to photograph more surfaces, and buildings for further experimentation.

Covid 19 has hit the hotel business really hard but has also left an opening for this Shadow Immigration System. This system takes children from the border crossing to hotels, which are sometimes many hours away, allowing the private contractors to circumnavigate the asylum rules. The plan is to return the children to the countries that they came from as quickly as possible, preventing them from joining established family members here in the US.

‘Shadow Immigration System: Migrant Children Detained In Hotels By Private Contractors’. 2020. NPR.org [online]. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2020/08/20/904027735/shadow-immigration-system-migrant-children-detained-in-hotels-by-private-contrac [accessed 28 Sep 2020].

Undocumented Poets and Writers Are Vital to the Struggle for Migrant Justice.
Undocumented people are too often silenced—it’s time we listened to their voices.

Poem written and read by Yosimar Reyes, undocumented poet. The legalities of being.  

TRE (My revolutionary). Excerpt from poem by Yosimar Reyes.

Now go
to where ever home is 
Knowing that in San Jose
You leave a brown boy 
That has nothing but love and respect for you.

In the mean time, 
I will stay here
in this cage, in this shitty city

Singing and singing
Till this system crumbles
Till borders break 
Till the earth shakes
And our people become awake

I will be here 
Singing and singing till the day
We are all free to return 

HOME.

‘The Legalities of Being – YouTube’. 2020. [online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eSpVOw3nBo [accessed 25 Sep 2020].

The Japanese kusudama is a paper model that is usually created by attaching multiple identical pyramidal units together through their points to form a spherical shape. Occasionally, a tassel is attached to the bottom for decoration. This does not mean that you cannot make other shapes with the units, as I do enjoy investigating new ideas and pushing the limits of these explorations.

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