Virginia Mallon

 

Asylum and Nevermore address the inhumane treatment of refugees and immigrants in the United States of America. 

Asylum reflects on the policy to separate and incarcerated families seeking Asylum.

Nevermore contemplates the fractured symbol of the American Dream and the meaning of “The New Colossus” engraved at the  feet of Lady Liberty.  Instead of the Lazarus poem, it  lists the names of those who have perished trying to reach asylum in the US.  Compiled from multiple sources, it is not a comprehensive list, but a symbol of  the thousands who have died seeking freedom.

 

Excerpts from The New Colossus

by Emma Lazarus (1883)

 

…Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

… "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”