$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 and the Trump administration, 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,” the policy was not simply one of law, but of cruelty by design.

The use of a bike chain is a symbol of mobility twisted into confinement. Where once it enabled movement, journey, and hope, it is now an instrument of restraint. The transformation is a metaphor for the immigrant experience in America: freedom promised, then revoked. Motion arrested. Dreams shackled.

The figure’s form is intentionally minimal—genderless, faceless, raceless—because this is not one person’s story. It is the story of thousands: asylum seekers detained for months or years; parents deported while their children remain in government custody.

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.