Morph Spell (for Chaofeng Ge)
Morph Spell (for Chaofeng Ge)
Vinyl, bag, soil from the ICE detention center at Moshannon Valley
2025
Temple University’s protective statement was permanently installed on its walls in 2023 after the public display of pro-Palestinian artworks. Since the statement first appeared, the university has gone much further to alienate students: punishing (including physically assaulting) peaceful protestors and neglecting to meaningfully protect its immigrant student population from ICE.
The Moshannon Valley Processing Center is located in central Pennsylvania. It’s the largest ICE detention facility in the northeastern US, and is infamous for prisoner abuse. In July 2025 I went to the entrance of the facility and gathered this soil. Less than a month later, Chaofeng Ge, a man detained at the facility, killed himself.
Institutions are slipping, acquiescing to authoritarian control. It’s a crisis within Temple University's campus and throughout the land.
Morph Spell (for Chaofeng Ge) was created for TBD at Stella Elkins gallery at Temple University