Tear Bottle Project 2026

All-Illinois Exhibition, Giertz Gallery, Parkland College, Champaign, Illinois.

When Victorian archeologists found small bottles in Roman-era graves, they concluded they must have been “tear bottles,” filled with tears by the mourners and then tossed into the grave. We now know the small bottles held perfumed oils.

These eighteen handmade ceramic Tear Bottles refer to the eighteen people who have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody January to May 2026. Their names have not been in the headlines and are not familiar to most of us. Their deaths are the tragic result of inhumane conditions and medical neglect.

Although they don’t hold tears, these bottles do contain my grief about these cruel policies enacted by our own government. I intend to continue this project through 2026. I hope I do not have to make more bottles.