For millennia humans have sought a better life by leaving their homes and
traveling to new lands. Often that trip involved crossing seas and oceans.
From the 15th - 20th Centuries, many individuals and families left (or were
taken) from their homelands to come to America, a majority traveled by
boat. Many were desperate to escape economic hardship, famine, and war.
Some of my ancestors were part of the mass migration that fled Ireland in
the years after the Great Famine. In the early years of the migration, many
people died of illness during the journey. Those boats became known as
Coffin Ships. Some of the most well-known migrations by boat include the
1980 Mariel Boatlift Boatlift, when approximately 125,000 people fled Cuba
coming to America in overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels. At the end of
the Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people crowded
into over-packed boats fleeing to neighboring countries to escape the
chaos. Most recently are the vivid images of Syrian refugees fleeing their
war-torn country in all manner of crowded boats and rafts.
This installation results from the artist's reflection on these events.