"Art can impact the social context of family dislocations and can serve as a powerful tool in encouraging an open national dialogue about Zero Tolerance in our country"
So (sew) America Cares is a participatory social art project with a commitment to raise awareness about the lives of the children separated from their parents at the border. All the faces stitched together strengthen the very fabric of our own society.
In 2018 a Zero Tolerance immigration policy was announced, requiring that all families who cross the border shall not only be separated but also charged in federal court with the misdemeanor crime of illegal entry.
This Project’s mission is to advocate for these children and to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to participate. Thread by thread, fiber by fiber, a participating community will increase its understanding of the circumstances of these children who never asked to be illegal aliens. The project consists of 10 different faces that will be repeated 100 times each to add 1000 faces. The faces had been laser etched on raw canvas to allow the participant to use any kind of thread, yarn, wool, fabric, paint etc. So (sew) America Cares has a plan: to "sew" them back, to never allow these children to be lost again, to create a quilt of 1000 faces representing a portion of these children.
We cannot allow these traumatized children to disappear and in time, be forgotten.People are encouraged to stitch, sew, knit, knot, crochet, embroider, or braid these drawings so as to symbolically recover these children’s faces and lives again.
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So (sew) America Cares is an international call for people to participate and raise awareness as to the consequences of this immigration policy and its devastating effect on children. As citizen, artist, mother and a child that suffered being separated from my family for eight years, I am concerned about the hundreds of separated children across our country.
WOVEN DESTINY. INSTALLATION
2020
Recycle t-shirt yarn
9 ft x 4 ft
Installation extends 20 ft wide
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The spider as a symbol of weaving and cosmogonic creation has been in the repertoire of almost every culture’s folk tales, oral and written history. From the Graeco-Latin myths to Guatemalan stories, Arachne is symbolized in the act of weaving. The act of weaving requires the maker to remain continuously attentive to their work just like the spider. The creature is endowed with the ability to create non-stop, spin, weave, knot and form a web of patience. The spider is more than a symbol of weaving, it is also a symbol of persistence. The same type of tenacity details the story of the women of the suffrage movement. They became adept in the act of weaving beliefs of justice for all, the struggle for the vote, and fighting for democracy and equal rights.
Molina’s new series undoubtedly uses the motif of Arachne as a representation of the women’s suffrage movement. A connection that is also rooted on native cultures who used weaving such as the Navajo, their dream catcher and a mix of New England folk rag rug weaving. Just like the rug hooking of the 1900s that used whatever materials were available, these pieces are assembled from repurposed t-shirt yarn. The yarn is recycled from the garment industry, a by-product of the industrialization of textiles.
With precision, skill and creativity, Molina brings this art to contemporary
standards. This installation is conceived from two disparate ideologies of “in
group our strength lies” and “self-reliance is transformative”. Following Ralph Waldo Emerson’s views on individualism as a profound and unshakeable trust in one’s own intuitions. Each individual orb references the maker’s alter egos and are woven from personal items; each piece carries a story and a DNA. All the orbs together form a new-found power of fresh strength, a newly empowered whole that brings on social change and individual enlightenment.
This installation based on women of the suffrage movement weaves a web of stories of self and community reliance. The girls with their hands on their hips, protesting and being non-conformist suggest the enlightened leaders of the suffrage movement. A mob of women and girls embracing the challenge, with a message on hand and ready to fight. Social justice is proclaimed by this group of young women just like the suffragists 100 years ago.
