While pregnant with Thatcher Gray, I created a sculpture for The Cradle Project initiated by Naomi Natale of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Raising awareness of the conditions faced by children impacted by HIV Aids in sub-Saharan Africa, it was a poignant experience creating this while carrying my own child to fruition. I remember attending a pre-natal yoga class where all the soon-to-be moms were talking about decorating nurseries and having baby showers, then sharing my own work, which was creating this found object sculpture made of bones suspended in the frame of a baby carriage. It was met by silence. I feel it is important to include our children in considering the world they are born into, how children live in other places and economies, and make connections between the them. It was during this time that I was curating several exhibitions regarding genocide. The work I collected traveled to Sarajevo to be installed for the International Association of Genocide Scholars, for whom I presented on ways to build human connections with survivors. The collection of works originally showed for the Mizel Museum in Denver, who had an education committee that was able to engage grade school students and inspire them to raise money for survivors from the ongoing genocide in Darfur. We came up with ways to tell these stories on a human level without relying on the sensationalized representations we’ve come to expect around this kind of difficult subject. I feel it is important to speak with children about the nature of this world, but frame it in a way that lends hope and connection over despair. I feel Naomi achieved this with the work she gathered for the exhibition. All works were donated and 100% of the funds raised supported the Firelight Foundation.

Naomi Natale writes:

The Cradle Project (2006-2008) is a social practice work that was designed to draw attention to orphaned and vulnerable children around the world. The vision of the project was to use empty cradles as symbols made out of scrap, found or discarded materials to represent the lost potential of children whose basic needs are threatened.

Over 555 cradles were created, representing a wide variety of art forms and sources- from homeless shelters, to artists in New Orleans working with refuse from Hurricane Katrina, to youth in schools and clubs, to museum exhibited artists. In June of 2008 all 555 cradles were installed in a solo exhibit in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The work supported the Firelight Foundation
Watch a short video on the project by the Firelight Foundation

She also created a beautiful catalog of the original exhibition.

Cradle by Lee Lee
Baby carriage frame, fabric, bones, barbed wire & a desiccated bird carcass