“Sand Relief”
World Ocean’s Day
Miami Beach, FL
(2025)

Emerging from this research, the artist designed a series of sculptural rakes inspired by the ornamental language of Miami’s Art Deco heritage—tools conceived to inscribe ephemeral gestures into the sand.

Shapiro collaborated with ArtSail to lead a series of community workshops engaging youth from Breakthrough Miami, Overtown Youth Center, and The Motivational Edge. These sessions invited participants to investigate the architectural landscape of Miami and its evolving relationship to the ocean.

Sand Relief activates these tools in a participatory performance along the shoreline, where community members etched fluid, temporary patterns into the earth. These transitory markings, soon dissolved by the incoming tide, gesture toward the fragile intersection of the city’s built environment and its natural surroundings.

A video documenting the work offers a meditation on memory, impermanence, and the collective imprint we leave on the planet.