These large, wind-blown and weathered gouache paintings of hands on sewing-pattern paper panels are the remnants of the first part of this installation, Phase I. Suspended between trees in the woods at Whittemore CCC in Oldwick, NJ, for 30 days, these fragile yet resilient panels began as little more than tissue paper stitched together. Over time, the wind transformed them into something wholly unexpected.

Created from donated and recycled sewing patterns; a medium I’ve embraced for its metaphors of fragility, strength, and memory; the panels were designed to deteriorate, their eventual disintegration feeding the work’s meaning. Four gestures adorned them: one panel depicting the ASL sign for “Help,” rising and falling in the breeze like a prayer flag; the other three embodying the universal three part silent hand signal used by people in the process of being trafficked. Together, they waved urgent messages across the landscape, calling us, as custodians of our environment, to listen to both our endangered planet and to silenced voices.

I anticipated rain would wear them down, but in the substantiating drought of 2024, it was wind that animated the work. It came sometimes as a soft breath, sometimes a furious gust, all captured in daily time-lapse films that now form the video Phase II. Now indoors, the panels’ battered surfaces still testify to resilience and the stubborn persistence of hope. Though beaten down, they refuse silence, continuing to cry out for justice, protection, and action.