From KERA’s Art&Seek:
South Texas resident Pamela Taylor lives near Brownsville along the U.S.-Mexico border. Here’s what she has to say about the rust-colored fence the U-S government installed at the river levee near her house: “To me it seems like a useless piece of crap.”
Taylor spoke to NPR’s John Burnett in 2014. She says the wall just doesn’t work.
“Take a look,” Taylor says. “They’re walking over. They have boats lined up on the other side of the river to row these people across.”
Taylor says people haven’t stopped making the dangerous trek into the U.S. And when they come, they leave things behind. Photographer Richard Misrach has seen it first hand.
“I bring back artifacts that I find in the desert along the border – it could be a migrant backpack or water bottle, tennis shoes things like,” says Misrach.
Misrach and artist and musician Guillermo Galindo have collaborated to create the exhibition “Border|Cantos.” It features Misrach’s massive photographs taken along the border, accompanied by music Galindo created using those found artifacts. It’s music played on instruments made of worn shoes, tires, even bones.
