Each and Every is an installation and performance project that speaks to the recent migrant children crisis, in direct response to the Family Separation Policy and the Zero Tolerance Policy implemented by ICE at the Southern border of the United States between 2017 and 2021. Each and Every calls attention back to the individual experiences of these children and their families. As the attention of the media cycles in and out, Each and Every is and solemn reminder that two and a half years later, the fate of many of these detained children is still unknown.

Each and Every consists of hundreds of articles of used children’s clothing that have been preserved and quieted by industrial cement. These hardened forms of small garments are poised just inches above the ground, forming a vast expanse on the gallery floor. Above the grey field of clothing, thousands of lines of cement-dipped white cotton thread are suspended from the ceiling, stopping just inches above the clothes. Though the garments have been transformed by cement, they maintain the drapes, folds and tender details of a ruffle, text, or a glimpse of color. These carefully-sculpted clothing forms embody the very absence of the detained migrant children.

In conjunction with Each and Every , Liu incorporates a performance in which she sits in silent meditation, mending worn articles of brightly-colored clothing. The holes and tears are a testament to the lives the garments have lived. This performance is the third in a series in which Liu reimagines feminine labor as a redemptive and healing process. Through the continual and persistent act of sewing, she sits in protest as an artist, as an immigrant, and most importantly, as a mother.

Images by James Harnois, David Wulzen, Amos Morgan, Katie Miller and Beili Liu Studio