The Statue of Liberty stands in New York Harbor and has welcomed people to New York since 1886. For decades, immigrants processed through Ellis Island saw the enormous copper statue upon arriving at US shores. Though Ellis Island no longer processes arrivals to the US, the statue remains an iconic symbol of freedom and welcome. In a new work called “You Know Who I Am,” on view on the High Line in New York City, artist Paola Pivi has repurposed the image of the statue to reflect on those ideas of freedom and welcome in the US today. She created a smaller-scale replica of the Statue of Liberty and added a series of emoji-style masks, each representing “an individual whose experience of freedom is connected to the United States, offering the sentiment that anyone could be represented within the symbol of the statue.” Currently, the mask portrays Marco Saavedra, “an artist, poet, restauranteur, longtime immigrant rights activist, and community organizer based in the South Bronx.” After many years of activism and organizing, Saavedra set a legal precedent for undocumented activists when he was granted political asylum in 2021. The image of his face on the iconic statue puts the history of American immigration in conversation with the modern immigration landscape.
Listen to an interview with Mr. Saavedra here.