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Dale Emmart, Swimming to Safety, ICE FOG

Swimming to Safety

Paper, ink suminagashi, stencil, accordion book

Artist Statement

Swimming to Safety concerns the movement of immigrants from east to west across the Mediterranean Sea. Reports in the news, journalists’ firsthand accounts of individuals’ stories, and novels about the fragility and heroism of people on the brink of survival experienced while trying to reach a receptive country are the motivations for this small, handheld accordion book.


ICE FOG

Paper, thread, wax paper, vellum, Risograph printing, stencil, gouache

Artist Statement

The images and stencils in this book refer to both the picturesque metaphor and the dominant news reporting of ICE operations in the USA. Fog similarly suggests the masked force and gas-throwing techniques that ICE operatives employ. The Fog of War is a descriptive term that refers to the confusion that accelerates fatal outcomes in weaponized conflicts. Fog obscures, ICE cuts, and facts become random partisan arrows.

Ice and Fog, while quite beautiful, are tools of deception and chaos. This tiny book ponders the conundrum.