In this work, St. Hilaire incorporates barbed wire into the canvas, through a process of sanding and painting while maintaining the material’s visual integrity. The artist was drawn to barbed wire for its coiled, spiraled form, as well as its historical use across wars, colonization, and violent occupations. Having been interested in the material for years, St. Hilaire felt she could not access this material for its sterility and hopelessness.Through a sanding and imprinting method, St. Hilaire depicts the anonymous figures of migrants, held back within the clutches of barbed wire. This artwork vividly recalls historical photos of Haitians detained at the US Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. One scene in particular recalls the miserable fate of Haitian would-be refugees and asylum seekers who were held there in abysmal conditions in the 1990s during the military coup against Haitian President Aristide. With these detention scenes, St. Hilaire shows that history is repeating itself, focusing on present-ing the past. St. Hilaire uses sanded-down barbed wire/the impression of barbed wire to literally incorporate this sterile, harsh material which continues to separate and divide people through immigration, land, and borders.