Artist Tanya Aguiñiga Reflects on Experience Crossing Mexican Border in Exhibit

Tanya Aguiñiga drew from her experience living on the U.S.-Mexico border while designing her exhibit using fiber, ceramics, hand-blown glass and traditional techniques to shed light on the political and cultural conflicts of the region.
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Image: Armory Center for the Arts Tanya Aguiñiga America’s Wall (performance photo) 2018 Performed by Tanya Aguiñiga, Jackie Amézquita, Cecilia Brawley, Natalie Godinez, Izabella Sanchez, and Shannen Wallace. Photo by Gina Clyne Courtesy of the artist and AMBOS Project “This performance was inspired by the persistent questioning Aguiñiga faces regarding the existence of a “wall’ in her travels across the US and Mexico. It documents and extracts evidence of the wall’s existence—there are three consecutive walls in the part of Mexico that Aguiñiga grew up in—in front of Trump’s proposed wall prototypes. This section of border fence, at Shroud of Turin, is made up of corrugated jet landing mats that were recycled from the Gulf War/Desert Storm. It was erected during Operation Gatekeeper, a strategic reinforcement of the US/Mexico Border, which was responsible for more migrant deaths in its first year than in the entirety of the previous 75 years of Border Patrol History. Aguiñiga and her team took rust impressions from these walls on cotton as evidence of their existence.

Tanya Aguiñiga drew from her experience living on the U.S.-Mexico border while designing her exhibit using fiber, ceramics, hand-blown glass and traditional techniques to shed light on the political and cultural conflicts of the region. She grew up on both sides of the border, living in Mexico but attending school in the United States.

Installation photos of Tanya Aguiñiga: Borderlands Within (2020). Photos by Ian Byers-Gamber. Courtesy Armory Center for the Arts.

“Borderlands Within” is an exhibit that reflects her lived experience crossing the border and dealing with immigration politics, transnational identity and community activism. “It’s a documentation of performances at the American-Mexican border dealing with issues such as immigration,” says Jon Lapointe, director of communications of Armory Center for the Arts. “She has a very personal experience to share, including using our walls as a loom.”

“This is relevant to what is going on in our world today,” adds Leslie A. Ito, executive director of Armory Center for the Arts. “This exhibit has made me think of my own family experience going back to World War II and how it affected the lives of my grandparents, including mental boundaries and how we relate to each other.”

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