A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

In this installation, Jônatas Chimen transforms emergency shock blankets—typically issued to asylum seekers in U.S. immigration detention centers—into the structural material for a domestic-like space. The work responds to widely circulated images of migrant children separated from their families, wrapped in these foil-like blankets behind chain-link fences. Intended to maintain body temperature, the blankets here become symbols of emotional detachment and systemic indifference. Chimen juxtaposes these sterile materials with comforting domestic objects: velvet chairs, lamps, warm shoes, and photographs of his own refugee ancestors. Yet the result is intentionally jarring—the blankets reflect too much light, the space crackles with discomfort, and the shelter feels precarious. What emerges is not comfort, but estrangement. The installation becomes a commentary on the psychological cost of displacement. It questions whether stability can exist without dignity, and whether an “alien nation” can ever become a true home. Belonging, Chimen suggests, remains an unresolved condition.