A(GOOD)AMERICAN Installation

Washington, DC | October 5 – November 9, 2018

In September 2017, the Trump administration announced it would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, putting 800,000 young immigrants – “dreamers” – into a state of limbo.

Each day we encounter statistics like 800,000 that are beyond our ability to comprehend. This exhibition reorients our relationship with numbers, moving us to consider 800,000 in terms of its impact on human lives.

To do this, I created an installation of 800 portraits – one for every 1,000 dreamers – to show the human faces behind this unimaginable number. The portraits physically immerse the viewer, bringing to life the scale of this policy decision: If you were to spend 10 seconds looking at each, it would take you two hours to see this exhibit. And this is just 0.1% of dreamers.

The portraits collectively create a digital mosaic of President Trump. Together, they pose a final question: What does it mean to be a good American?

Process: Using social media and Google Images, I reached out to and collected dreamers’ photos – in many cases, the very ones they’re using on their DACA applications. I then drew each digital portrait on an iPad, and printed and installed each in the exhibition. I also used Photoshop to help recreate some of the portraits in different color palettes for the digital mosaic.

Reception: This installation was covered by WAMU and WJLA: