Maria Markham’s interdisciplinary practice encompasses installation, sculpture, photography, and video. Her practice centers on the interconnectedness of all things through explorations in ecologies, future speculations, and memory and history. Markham's work often incorporates elements from the natural world. The Ties That Bind II is about emigration and immigration. The images in this photo collage blend two images from my own e/immigration. I shot the base image from Pier 57 in New York City, one of my favourite places there. The image transposed over New York’s Harbour are trees from the lane near where I grew up in Greystones, Ireland. Tree roots reach deep and have a complex network of connection through mycorrhiza or fungal roots. This complex symbiosis provides a metaphor for our own human relations that spread invisibly as we migrate to distant places. Even though we are scattered, we remain connected by many threads to our own roots.