Lina and Melisa, Pupusa Vendors

Hand embroidery

11 x 9

$2500

Maria and Dora, The Cleaners

Hand embroidery

11 x 14

$3000

My hand-embroidered pieces explore labor, memory and migration via textile works. I portray immigrants working as food vendors and domestic workers. I asked my subjects to send me photos of themselves at their place of work. I created embroidery works based on those images. Community members, some of them from West Harlem, are not just involved in the project, but they are co-designers and co-creators of the project. Due to their legal status, participating workers in this project decided not to reveal their identities. The medium of embroidery allows me to acknowledge the contributions of the immigrant workers I portray while at the same time conceal and protect their identities. Embroidery also allows me to include the concept of repetition often found in manual labor, addressing notions of visibility related to immigrant labor in the U.S. In this time of exclusion and displacement, I seek to bring attention to personal stories at risk of erasure while envisioning a more tolerant, connected and interdependent future.