children

Eleison is an Ancient Greek verb that describes the visceral, intimate love a mother feels for her child.
The word gives its name to a series of watercolors that explore this emotion, inspired by photographs of migrant mothers.
The splashes of color trace desperation, struggle, and fear, while celebrating the deepest and most powerful love of all.
In the hands, eyes, and gestures of these mothers lies the history that flows through love — and the love that flows through History.
Their names echo those of the cities where they were portrayed, as if this collection were a new geography.
Eleison is also the invocation addressed to Christ at the beginning of the Catholic and Orthodox liturgies.
Mistranslated for centuries as “have mercy,” both branches of Christianity have long been appealing to the Kyrie for the quintessentially feminine act of devotion:
“Love me with a deep and visceral love — love me as only a mother can.”
Even though Christ is a man, his love transcends gender.
Eleison is perhaps the most feminine form of love — and certainly the most absolute, the most radical.
It is within these perilous crossings, in this migration of human beings made dangerous by other human beings, that such enduring love must be told:
unilateral, unconditional, illogical — and therefore invincible.