Traces: A Memorial for the 2019 Pima County Victims of Gun Violence

The faces blur into each other. The names dissolve into each other. 204 names. 64 faces that could be found in the public record. I spent weeks researching each name, seeing what public facing trace had been left of them in the world. Reading obituaries written by grieving loved ones. Newspaper articles about brutal murders. Unsolved crimes. Accidents. Suicides, not always labeled as such. Layers upon layers of pain compounding on each other. Bullets ricocheting through my mind.

My collaborator, Elena Makansi, and I etched the names and faces into plexiglass, chanting each name three times, trying to make the exhaustive act of tracing into some small offering to the dead.

We fabricated a memorial stand that now lives at the Pima Friends Meeting in Tucson, a solemn, enigmatic reminder of how gun violence lingers in the community.

This project was supported by the Marcia Centennial Sculptural Award.