Monuments
Over the past year, Monuments to Migration and Labor (NJMML) has organized and facilitated 27 public events across the state of New Jersey. Monument artists Chat Travieso (Central Jersey), Michelle Angela Ortiz (North Jersey), and Immanuel Oni (South Jersey) have now completed the designs for installations that will debut to the public in June, July, and at the start of August, respectively. The monument artists’ final concepts reflect both distinct visions, and a shared commitment to participatory processes and sustained community engagement that have driven NJMML from the beginning. Grounded in listening to migrants and their descendants, these works channel collective histories and voices into powerful works of art that invite the public to honor immigrants, migrants, and their contributions.
Carriers of Light and Labor pays tribute to workers from across northern New Jersey, and makes visible their diverse stories and contributions. Through five separate structures that come together to form the installation, Ortiz’s monuments evoke Paterson’s industrial history, the textile-making traditions of immigrants drawn to the city as laborers, and the mills’ dependence on the Passaic River. The monuments will be installed in front of Paterson City Hall, on Market Street, in the very heart of the city.
EN ROOT offers a monumental vision and ambitious ecological agenda for War Memorial Park/Parque Oaxaca in New Brunswick. From its location at the triangle formed by the intersection of French Street and Jersey Avenue, En Root will consist of a large-scale sculptural gateway installation in vivid orange, welcoming the public into the park. En Root will include monarch-attracting pollinator gardens with native plantings, while also providing information and resources for immigrant workers.
Flagship asks us to consider what is revealed when a monument reflects and takes on the journeys that immigrant and migrant workers made across the dispersed geographies of South Jersey. Immanuel Oni’s Flagship - or “Sail Bus” as it is also called - will travel throughout the region, doubling as a mobile museum exhibiting and sharing oral histories, images, and other archival materials that explore how through work, migration, and community building, connections to place in South Jersey were forged.
