Journey Mercies

Journey Mercies is an installation of more than one hundred cardboard boxes, each painted with a face. Their form recalls the packaging used to move things around the world, but the portraits bring attention back to the people whose lives are carried across borders.

The boxes can be stacked and arranged differently each time the work is shown. Some stand alone; others depend on the structures beside them. That changing arrangement makes the relationships between people a visible part of the installation.

Each box measures approximately 40 by 40 by 40 centimetres. Stacked together, they can form a wall or an open structure that viewers move around. The cardboard remains visibly ordinary and vulnerable, even when the installation fills a room. That tension is part of how the work speaks about the people and systems behind every journey.

Created during a residency at The Bomb Factory Art Foundation in London, Journey Mercies has since been shown in several settings, including exhibitions in London, Paris and Miami.