The Art Alley gallery space at University Park's HUB-Robeson Center is one of 150 locations throughout the world hosting installations for the Hostile Terrain 94 art project sponsored by the Undocumented Migration Project. Students in Penn State Scranton Lecturer in Art Corianne Thompson's studio art and art history courses participated in the project, filling out toe tags meant to represent the thousands of migrants who have died at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Art Alley gallery space at University Park's HUB-Robeson Center is one of 150 locations throughout the world hosting installations for the Hostile Terrain 94 art project sponsored by the Undocumented Migration Project. Students in Penn State Scranton Lecturer in Art Corianne Thompson's studio art and art history courses participated in the project, filling out toe tags meant to represent the thousands of migrants who have died at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The front of the tags for which the students created memorial messages for include all details except for the individuals' names, which are unknown. Here they are shown juxtaposed against a book of inspirational quips used to inspire the students.
Penn State Scranton senior Julia Fessenden wrote quotes from several poets on the back of her toe tags, stating she did so because, "I felt my own words were inadequate."
Senior Kristi Cucura filled out the tags for two unidentified migrants. On the one tag, she wrote “peace,” with hopes that the person’s soul “would find peace in the afterlife despite not finding peace on this earth.”