Presorted, Second Class

These envelopes, covered in 'sơn mài' eggshell skin, carry histories. I made them during the first Trump presidency, as families were cruelly separated at the US-Mexico border. Envelopes, as social objects, can engender both connection and absence: we write to someone, in lieu of our physical presence. Too often, it is our brothers and sisters of the global south who must speak, laugh and cry across the treacherous distances of land, sea and time, in the hope of a better life.