Through her practice, Austin-based artist Beili Liu subjects commonplace materials to unorthodox processes, extrapolating complex cultural narratives around the human experience of migration and diaspora. At MadArt Studio, Liu created an expanse of hundreds of articles of children’s clothing, positioned just inches above the ground and flattened and preserved by industrial cement. Thousands of lines of thread, also partially coated in cement, hung from the ceiling and hovered over the vast plane of clothing. Additional tension was added through dichotomies in her materials and concepts: lightness and heft, malleability and firmness, fragility and strength.

Liu created a series of performances alongside the installation during the opening week of Each and Every. As a gesture of both resilience and hope, Liu used the repetitive act of sewing to mend torn articles of colorful children’s clothing, giving the damaged clothes a renewed purpose.

This installation was Liu’s direct response to the atrocities inflicted on migrant children and their families at the southern border of the United States. As the title and work suggest, Each and Every called attention back to the individual experiences of these children and their families, generating space for empathy and understanding.