Piñatas

Piñatas : we developed a series of piñatas made in the form of the water jug to highlight the juxtaposition between the dual purpose of smashing an object--one for hatred and fear the other for joy.

Numbers 20:11

Numbers 20:11 “And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he struck the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their animals also.” - King James Version

Tire drag

Tire drag: based on the tires used by border patrol agents to scrape the land near the wall to find people crossing

Mirage

Mirage: an optical illusion caused by atmospheric conditions, especially the appearance of a sheet of water in a desert or on a hot road caused by the refraction of light from the sky by heated air.

Installation for Wurster Courtyard at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.

Between Dualities

by Arturo Ortiz and Lizzie Sturr

After Operation ‘Hold the Line’ was deployed in 1993, fewer migrants were able to cross in safe urban areas and were forced into harsh and dangerous landscapes. Nonprofits and community groups leave water gallons throughout the desert to help prevent migrant deaths. Our project developed after watching and reading about U.S. Border Patrol agents sabotaging water supplies left for migrants coming from Mexico into the United States. On social media you can see them slashing, shooting, kicking, or emptying water from the gallons.

As landscape architects and designers, Between Dualities explores this tragedy in two forms and pushes back against the Border Patrol Agents:first as a design solution and second as an art object.

The Prototype: The purpose of this prototype is to camouflage water left for crossing migrants from U.S. Border Patrol. As a political statement, this prototype highlights the absurdity that a simple human necessity to survive (e.g., drinking water) needs to be camouflaged.

This prototype was installed in along the Mexico-U.S. Border in El Paso, TX and further developed as an installation for Wurster Courtyard at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.