Students roaming the CWU campus may have seen bright red sand lining cracks in cement and dying the snow drifts. Molly Gochman’s Red Sand Project made its debut at CWU earlier this year, and has since had students all asking the same question: what the heck is with all this sand?
The official description, as explained on Gochman’s website, is that the “Red Sand Project is an activist artwork created to raise awareness of human trafficking—modern-day slavery.”
The project involves red sand being passed out to students, which is then spread around campus wherever the student sees fit. Sand has been spread around the SURC, up and down the walkways leading to the library and Lind Hall, as well as in the cracks around Barto and Sparks halls.
The sand is symbolic for the silent torture human trafficking inflicts on individuals, and how people may walk past them without even knowing. Molly Gochman explained in her Red Sand video that the project is a call to action and a means to bring attention to the issue.
“With human trafficking for example, these vulnerabilities can just sit here like the sidewalk cracks and can go unnoticed and nothing can happen but you can pay attention and be mindful of that and make something happen,” Gochman said.
Assistant Professor of Art History Ellen Avitts  explained how the movement affects people by saying, “putting the sand out is a pretty powerful thing, it’s almost meditative. You really start to think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.”Jack Lambert