Erika DeFreitas first began researching the Black Madonna during a 2017 residency at Alice Yard in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. An uncanny, familial connection to one of the statues in a nearby town sealed DeFreitas’s interest in “La Divina Pastora,” as she undertook work that felt like forging a bond with a grandmother she never knew. DeFreitas determined that she would echo a model of care for the Black Madonna, enrobing her through collage, using magazine cutouts and photostat images of the numerous Black Madonnas that proliferate throughout the world. The face of one becomes the face of many. The Black Madonnas of Perpetual Murmurs continues an earlier series, The Black Madonnas of Great Echoes, and introduces delicate cutouts in relief. The patterns are sourced from breezeway structures — open walkways common in the West Indies and elsewhere, functioning as connecting corridors — here, also acquiring the appearance of stained glass.