For enigmatic Miami artist The Miracle Ghost (TMG), concerns over recent mass arrests and deportations by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are more than theoretical. The artist, who obscures his face and voice in public, emigrated to Miami from Venezuela in 2010, and his latest work, a collaboration with fellow creative Yoni Yonson, himself the son of Argentine immigrants, addresses these anxieties head-on.
The piece, on display at this week’s III Points Music Festival, depicts a ghost being abducted by a UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon). TMG and Yonson say the work “serves as a metaphor for the systemic deportation of undocumented immigrants in the United States. The ghost represents the resilience of the human spirit, while the UAP symbolizes the system that seeks to erase and displace it.”
As tidy as the concept might sound on paper, TMG and Yonson weren’t planning some grand statement when they began working on the piece. The concept revealed itself as their collaboration unfolded…