Border Walls

Cubereo’s Border Walls is a multi-layered polemic about the immigration debates that sparked during the 2016 US Presidential election. In the foreground, a compassionate soldier aids a man who has fallen after going over the wall, while another immigrant climbs down a ladder, quickly following behind. This scene plays out every day along the US-Mexico border, for even after the border is crossed, a treacherous walk across a desert usually follows. 

These immigrants are fleeing a horde of soldiers representing the strife of their home countries, where drugs, violence, exploitation, and government graft are far too normal. 

Since the Great Recession, more illegal immigrants have returned to their home countries from the United States than have entered, which provides an alternative reading. Since two border walls divide the work, the foreground could represent Mexico, with an immigrant returning to face the suffering of his home country, while the center (between the walls) represents the United States’ stepped up rhetoric and enforcement efforts to drive immigrants out of the country.

The irony is that the door to the gate separating the two sides is always open, signifying that no matter what size barrier you put in front of people, they will find a way through to the other side.