Thread: An openness to border fence

An openness to border fence

Divider boundless as visual forum for political expression

By Leslie Berestein
Monday, November 30, 2009 at 12:04 a.m.

A collection of 5,100 wooden crosses hung from the fence at Playas de Tijuana is a memorial to those who have died trying to cross the border illegally.

The international border fence closest to the ocean is the latest site for an exhibit protesting the Operation Gatekeeper that foes claim has cost the lives of 5,100 immigrants over the last 15 years. (John Gibbins/Union-Tribune)
In Cold War-era Berlin, artists and others who decried the wall dividing the city into east and west used its concrete expanse as a broad canvas for political and personal expression, over the years turning its gray surface into multihued graffiti art.

And in Tijuana today, those who protest U.S. immigration policies have the border fence.

In the nearly two decades since fencing began to appear on the U.S.-Mexico border between San Diego and Tijuana, the fence has become its own political canvas of sorts, with stretches of it serving as a backdrop for installations that have included thousands of wooden crosses, painted coffins, paintings of skulls and of doors that go nowhere, save for the desert.

The paintings and installations, the most recent a collection of 5,100 wooden crosses hung from the fence at Playas de Tijuana last month, are memorials to those who have died in attempts to traverse the border illegally, most of them through rough terrain to the east.

The fence also has acted as a billboard for political candidates, as a structure on which to affix screened images for a city art exhibit a few years ago, as a place for taggers’ graffiti and for the quieter musings of would-be migrants who have scratched their names and where they came from onto the rusty metal.

Unlike on the Berlin Wall, where much of the art was spontaneous and anonymous, most of the protest art on the border fence has been planned and orchestrated by border activists and local artists. To the east in Nogales, Ariz., an artists’ collective has been responsible for many of the pieces there, including metal sculptures and murals affixed to the fence. Still, those who have studied the phenomenon of political boundaries and art say there are universal similarities in what prompts the expression.

“Borders tend not to be joyous places,â€

5,100 people have died and still some people aren't smart enough to stay in their own country and stay alive and not violate the laws of another country.

The international border fence closest to the ocean is the latest site for an exhibit protesting the Operation Gatekeeper that foes claim has cost the lives of 5,100 immigrants over the last 15 years. (John Gibbins/Union-Tribune)

I wonder how many crosses are inside of America's borders for innocent Americans who have died at the lawbreaking hands of criminal lawbreaking border crossers that made it across successfully during that time frame......................

Seems no-one wants to think about that tragedy?

How much destruction has been heaped on our society and how much more will there be?

5100 is NOTHING compared to how many Americans have suffered at the hands of Illegal Alien crime....Pffft

First,The Berlin Wall divided a country NOT NATIONS.

Second,why aren't those who are bemoaning all the IA deaths protesting the Mexican Government to do something to stop IA's from crossing the border into the USA.And why are they not on the phones and emailing our President and Napolitano telling them to STOP inticing IA's with repeated promises of Amnesty which has resulted in some of these deaths ?

The reason is those bemoaning these deaths are USING their deaths for their OWN agendas"OPEN BORDERS".Their actions expose their selfishness and their lack of truely wanting to stop the deaths by working to stop IA's from attempting to cross into the USA.