Art installation at UMass evokes impact of fences along US-Mexico border
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Visiting her neighbor used to involve a 15-minute walk for Ofelia Rivas. But since the fence went up along the United States-Mexico border in 2007, dividing the Tohono O'odham reservation in southern Arizona where Rivas and other tribe members live, that visit now involves at least a two-hour drive, as well as passing through a border checkpoint.
A public art installation erected this week at the University of Massachusetts Amherst aims to help people understand what the border fence has meant for people like Rivas and others around the world whose communities have been cut in two by such barriers.
The project seeks to convey the impact of the Arizona border fence in real terms by erecting a to-scale photographic replica of it across a section of the campus. Called "The Border Crossed Us," the installation will divide the UMass campus along its north-south boundary, running from the parking garage to the Campus Center.
The creation of Catherine D'Ignazio of the Boston-based Institute of Small Things, the installation will remain up through May 1 and will incorporate panel discussions with D'Ignazio, Rivas and Flora Marrietta of the Tohono O'odham Nation, as well as UMass faculty. The project, commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass, is one of several public art installations created on the campus in the past year.
On one of the first warm days of spring earlier this month, D'Ignazio and her 2-month-old son, Orlando, were on campus, where a crew from the UMass physical plant was helping set up the free-standing chain-link fence sections on which the image of the Arizona barrier would be installed. Work was completed Tuesday.
A land divided
D'Ignazio said the idea for the installation grew from her exploration of how areas used by the public have changed since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"It's the theater of fear and insecurity," she said. For example, airports have sprouted signs that say "See something, say something" and issue constant warnings about unattended luggage, she said.
The project took form, D'Ignazio said, after she visited her sister, who lives in Tucson in southern Arizona. There, the pair went to see the United States-Mexico border fence, which is part of a system of barriers erected to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into this country. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has so far built 344 miles of fence, mainly in New Mexico, Arizona and California, with construction under way in Texas.
According to D'Ignazio, the border fence has had a deep impact on the Tohono O'odham Nation, which has more than 20,000 members on its 2.8-million-acre reservation, the second largest in the country. The Tohono O'odham have lived on the land for hundreds of years, she said, long before a boundary separating Mexico or the United States existed. The reservation runs along the border for 75 miles.
"They're caught in the middle of this polarized border dispute," said D'Ignazio. "It's a very sad situation for them."
According to Rivas, a tribe elder who acts as its representative, under U.S., Mexican and international law it is the right of the Tohono O'odham people to travel over traditional routes in their territory.
In a 2008 interview with the Washington Times, Rivas put it this way: "By restricting the mobility of the O'odham people, the wall prevents the free practice of their religion and their cultural traditions. Further, rights granted by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration of Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples, and the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man are also being ignored due to a waiver issued by the Department of Homeland Security."
Bringing it home
D'Ignazio said the industrial-looking border fence presents a startling contrast to the desert landscape it bisects. That disparity is compounded by the presence of border control vehicles and surveillance cameras along its length.
"It's powerful," she said. Gesturing to the fence going up at UMass, she added, "It's fictional here, but I'm trying to recreate that feeling of (being) divided.
"It's a provocation," she said. "How do you feel about being in a divided space that's not meant to be divided? I'm bringing that border closer to us."
The installation presents a photographic copy of the border fence. The real version is constructed of 4- and 6-foot posts strung with heavy steel cable.
Seen from a distance, the fence depicted on the UMass campus appears unbroken, although two sections are offset by about 10 feet, allowing people to walk through it. The piece also features a sound component, piped through a nearby air shaft, of construction noise coupled with a recording made at the fence when it was being built.
D'Ignazio said that a kiosk next to the fence will double as a border patrol station, with questions posted that might be put to people living near such a barrier: "Where are you going?" "Why are you here?" and "What are you hiding?" The installation also offers a phone number to which people can text responses to the questions and/or observations about the project. They can also go to "The Border Crossed Us" website.
The impact
D'Ignazio said she hopes to recreate the unease that comes with having an unexpected and foreign object forced upon your everyday reality. She wants people walking through campus to experience the disbelief - if only briefly - that comes from seeing their way blocked off and their familiar turf cut in two.
It makes people think maybe this really is happeninghere, she said.
Ultimately, D'Ignazio said, she feels that security efforts instituted in the wake of 9/11, such as those color-coded terror alerts, as well as the changes along the U.S.-Mexico border, have had the opposite effect.
"They make us feel more insecure," she said.
Several events are planned in conjunction with the installation.
On Friday, a panel discussion will take place from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in Room 227 at Herter Hall, where Ofelia Rivas, Flora Marrietta of the Tohono O'odham Nation, Solomon Rockibear of the Malieseet tribe and Curtis Lazore of the Mohawk tribe will talk. Following a 4:30 p.m. reception, papers written by UMass Native American Studies graduate students will be presented at 5 p.m.
On Saturday, tours of "The Border Crossed Us" will take place from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Rivas, Marrietta and D'Ignazio will talk about the challenges faced by an indigenous community whose territory has been bisected by an international boundary. A powwow will take place in Curry Hicks Cage from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
And finally, at 6:30 p.m., musician, deejay and activist Tikasin Ghosthorse of the Cheyenne River Sioux will present a Red Cedar flute performance at the project site.
All events are free and open to the public.
Phoebe Mitchell can be reached at pmitchell@gazettenet.com.
