All Mopped Up confronts the weight of racial discrimination and exploitative labor conditions endured by Caribbean migrants seeking a so-called “better life” in the United States. This work began with photographs of my own body, contorted and slouched—head to knee—capturing the posture of exhaustion and the instinct to shrink and protect oneself from repeated harm.

I transferred these bodily forms onto mesh, layering and stapling mop fibers until they overwhelmed the figure. The mop fibers are deliberate: they reference how Black and immigrant bodies are reduced to tools for menial labor, objectified as instruments for cleaning up other people’s messes. The labor embedded in constructing this piece mirrors the relentless physical and emotional toll of survival work—work that often comes with exploitation, overwork, and racial bias.

The fibers obscure the form, symbolizing how internalized trauma buries identity and self-worth. Each strand marks the scars left behind by daily indignities that poison the body, mind, and spirit. This work speaks directly to Caribbean nationals who migrate under the promise of opportunity but find themselves isolated, underpaid, overworked, and stuck in unhealthy conditions—sometimes for years—believing it is the price for progress.

All Mopped Up makes visible what is too often hidden: the cost of enduring injustice for the dream of a “better life.” It is both a record of my own healing and a protest against the systems that continue to wear us down until there is nothing left to give but the labor of our bodies.