The issue of the border is not something that just came up in the last two years. It’s been since 1848 . ... It’s been a long, continuous journey of permeability versus closure. — curator Lowery Stokes Sims
Albuquerque artists Raven Chacon, Jami Porter Lara, and Augustine Romero. In addition to 516 Arts and the Albuquerque Museum, the show has satellite exhibitions and public programming at sites including the UNM Art Museum and School of Architecture, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and Sanitary Tortilla Factory. “Thinking about the spirit of
[it’s about] collaboration,” Lopez said. “So it kind of lent itself to this idea of, How do we build some kind of larger collaboration here in Albuquerque that also brings this idea of the border to life across the city?”
What happens when an exhibition takes on new layers of political meaning during its existence, thereby evolving before viewers’ eyes? The metamorphosis of the exhibit amid news of wall prototypes and the wall as budget bargaining chip attests to the vitality and relevance of the art. The contemporary artists whose works are on display present imaginative ways to consider a realm that is so often mired in confusion and partisanship. El Paso-based artist Margarita Cabrera, for instance, has crafted textured cacti that rise from terra-cotta pots. The cacti are made not from traditional sculptural media but from the fabric of Border Patrol uniforms. Artist Guillermo Galindo, an experimental composer from Mexico City, used items found along the border — clothing and inner tubes — to build a loom, and
a set of drums. Galindo has used the two works to create music, thus giving sound to the silent.
The range of media and styles in the show reflects the porousness of conceptual and artistic borders. Sims and Mallet write in the catalog for the Craft and Folk Art Museum exhibit, “This [artistic bordercrossing] results in a more fluid sense of practice, as designers and artists reference and collaborate with colleagues in other fields, irrespective of borders.”
The works also deftly span media typically associated with either traditional or contemporary arts, again addressing, if not erasing, the conceptual divisions we use to simplify categorizations. In
by Guillermo Bert, a brightly colored, intricately woven tapestry with flowers, birds, and dolls has a QR code at its center, surrounded by a faded photograph of a train. When scanned, the code reveals the story of a man who traveled to the U.S. from Guatemala on the train. Artist Pilar AgüeroEsparza will be conducting a huarache-making workshop as part of the exhibition’s programming (Feb. 18); her featured collaboration with Hector Dionicio Mendoza is a set of swimming flippers made in a traditional woven style.
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