$1,850.00

Steel & Bike Chain | 14”x7”x5”

Artist Statement: The Immigrant

The Immigrant is a steel metal sculpture built out of welded square and rectangular tubes - abstractly human, rigid, and upright. The figure is bound tightly in an old bike chain, coiled around the torso, neck, and limbs. The chain is not decorative, it is restraint. This sculpture is a portrait of captivity in a country that promises freedom.

The Immigrant is inspired by the real and ongoing trauma inflicted by ICE who are aggressively pursuing mass detention, family separation, and deportation as tools of political messaging and control. From cages in detention centers to the revival of the term “alien immigrant” the policy is not simply one of law, but also of cruelty by design.

The use of a bike chain is a symbol of mobility twisted into a sign of confinement. Where once it enabled movement, journey, and hope, it is now an instrument of restraint. A metaphor for the immigrant experience in America: freedom promised, dreams shackled. This is not one person’s story, it is the story of thousands.

The Immigrant refuses to be silent, though it makes no sound. It bears witness to those who are caged not for who they are, but for where they came from.