This Thursday – following the dismantling of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that will leave nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants unprotected from deportation – a French artist by the name of JR mounted a 30-foot black-and-white picture of a baby on the US-Mexico border in Tecate. Although border art is not a new concept, this specific piece garnered much interest in part due to the artist’s notoriety, but mostly in light of the current political climate between the neighboring countries.
The giant baby, located on the Mexico side of the border, is up for interpretation when it comes to its meaning. Some have speculated that it intends to depict the useless nature of the wall. To the point that even an infant can tower over it. Others believe it represents families being split up by the border. The truth is, though, JR has yet to figure out what the artwork means himself, but he told the HuffingtonPost it came to him in a dream.
He did, however, explain that it’s part of an ongoing project that he helped form called InsideOut11M, named after the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. JR aspires to create “a portrait of America that includes immigrants and the descendants of immigrants alike.”
The photographed baby’s name is Quiquito and reportedly lives near the installation. A simple scaffold holds up the piece of art so its live spectators, mostly border patrol officers, can witness the masterpiece. This border art means different things to different people, but what most can agree on is that people are born every day that will one day stop at no cost to reach the other side of the wall.
Recent works of art displayed at the border also raise awareness of the immigration issue and overall political shortcomings when addressing the matter. When Donald Trump was still a bad punchline, back in November of 2016, a group of street artists by the name of Indecline created a mural of Trump with a ball gag in his mouth. The writing on the painting read RAPE TRUMP, making their disapproval of the Donald loud and clear.
Indecline didn’t stop there, the rest of the writings on the wall are detailed instructions on how to get to Donald Trump in New York from Tijuana. The Creative Director of the collective of artists told Vice, “We don’t honestly expect anyone to crawl over the border and follow the instructions and find Trump and rape him. But we want to raise awareness [about the] horrible sh*t he said. Controversy works better than something subtle.”
And he does have a point. Which is why this won’t be the last border art we will see. Especially these next six months that will spell the continuation of DACA or the deportation of thousands of children, teenagers, and young adults who know no home other than the United States of America.