Uprooting is based on my current thoughts revolving around the ethics of mobility within our current polarized political climate. I’ve been reflecting on the contrast between survival drive immigration and my choice to move out of the United States voluntarily. The work does not attempt to equate these experiences, but instead examine the asymmetry between them (who is treated as a traveler vs a threat). I wanted to question what freedom means when mobility itself is unevenly distributed, and to confront the tension between my own personal agency and the systemic inequity that is currently (and has been) taking place in the U.S. The horse functions as a representation of me, embodying chosen movement. In contrast, migratory birds such as the Sandhill Crane & Arctic Terns represent survival based movement, evoking the realities of those who cross borders out of necessity.