A geometric gold border frames muted, dried flowers pressed beneath mylar, creating a quiet image of suppression—a deliberate overwriting of voices that challenge dominant narratives. The patterned backdrop, recalling domestic wallpaper or institutional décor, suggests curated order and “acceptable” identity. Yet this order echoes state rhetoric like the executive order PROTECTING THE UNITED STATES FROM FOREIGN TERRORISTS AND OTHER NATIONAL SECURITY AND PUBLIC SAFETY THREATS, where “security” becomes code for exclusion. Policies framed as protection decide who belongs and who is cast as a danger, often aligning Americanness with whiteness. The flowers, once vibrant, are stilled and muted, symbolizing dissenting voices—immigrants, activists, people of color, or allies—silenced or erased from public discourse. The piece exposes how authoritarian power thrives on covering complexity, enforcing conformity, and presenting erasure as safety. It holds the uneasy tension between constructed order and the violence needed to sustain it, asking what is sacrificed in the name of national purity.