“Iron Cradle” is a sculpture I made using two old baby shoes and a heavy, rusted horseshoe. The shoes are bronzed, which people often do to save a memory from a child’s early life. The horseshoe is standing upright, almost like it’s wearing the shoes.
It might look kind of funny at first, but the piece isn’t a joke. It’s about the kind of pressure that you can’t see, but you feel every day. The kind that makes you anxious, even when you're doing your best.
Where the Idea Came From
When I made this piece, I was thinking about how some systems in life, like rules, laws, or even our own emotions are said they’re meant to protect us, but they can feel like cages.
For example, in the news, we hear a lot about children being held in immigration detention centers. These places are supposed to be safe, but they’re cold, locked-down areas that can hurt kids instead of helping them.
So I started thinking: What if the things that are supposed to take care of us like the systems, families, even our own minds, end up trapping us instead?
The Bigger Meaning
That’s what ”at Iron Cradle “is really about. The baby shoes stand for innocence, early memories, and how we all start out small. The horseshoe stands for something strong and heavy. Maybe this could be like protection or luck. But here it’s rusted, worn down, and too heavy for the tiny shoes.
To me, this says: “Sometimes what’s meant to help us ends up weighing us down.”
It can also show how stress and anxiety build up over time. You may look fine on the outside like the bronzed shoes. But inside you’re stuck carrying something too big, too cold, and too unchanging.
Why It Still Matters
There are real kids today who are stuck in places they didn’t choose. They’re held behind fences and metal gates, in places made to feel “safe,” but that feel more like prisons.
