I held a job at a jewelry store that was popular for their charm necklaces supplies and diy service. This job made me think a lot about how a trendy jewelry piece could pull so many people and for the amount of time it could do it for. Around the same time I was involved at the border to learn and sometimes assist in OADS (open air detention sites) This is where people that crossed from Mexico illegally by foot would be held before being taken to processing facilities. The OADS didn’t have people all of the time. Sometimes I got to see the remains of what once was a place that hosted hundreds of migrants seeking asylum in the United States and now had empty shelters built by volunteers, as well as lots of belongings left behind by the people. Charging cords, currency from their home country, broken IDs, clothing all things I began picking up and collecting. When picking it up I would notice the outline of the object left behind on the ground. I picked it up but its existence was still left behind. After all I was doing the same thing to the objects as the border patrol does to the migrants, picking them up and taking them somewhere else. Some questions kept pouring over me. What happens to the place after something is there and then it's not? Does the object become more meaningful when left behind? I think of the stories that these objects carry with them, I ask why they are left behind and together they create a larger narrative. A story shared by all of the humans that carried these objects with them and then left them behind in the same grounds. This charm necklace exists to satisfy the trend but in hopes that this one in contrast to the ones from the job brings awareness to the people that have to find asylum in our Southern border.

photographs from the site of the objects present and then removed.