MOGADISHU

As I began to research Somalia, I realized how tragic life can be in this part of the world: famine, combat victims, genital cutting, rape, and death. I chose feet to humanize an artistic abstraction. This work represents people who have no shoes. Their feet show and tell the story of a different life. The materials in my piece represent the fragility of life: hog gut, blood, seeds, leaves, gravel, and forest bits. The sculpted feet are twisted and distorted to represent the hardships of those who make it to the refugee camps safely and to honor those who tried and did not. “Our feet and hands silently bear witness to our life.”