TitleOutside the Circle of Civilized Human BehaviorYear2019Sizeapprox. 78”x 60” Materialsmodified entry matsDescriptionOutside the Circle explores immigration politics by removing portions of the weft of found welcome mats in order to create the words of a statement uttered in the media by Nancy Pelosi while commenting on the death of an infant child in ICE custody in the summer of 2019. I wanted to memorialize this phrase because, while a media sound byte, it captured the level of indecency of the U.S. government toward people attempting to immigrate. Welcome mats juxtapose our hospitable values with the reality of our actions. The price tag was left on each mat as a nod to the role of cheap labor in the creation of the immigration crisis - benefiting some while causing devastating exploitation and desperation of others.
