Borderlands National Park (BLNP), 2016-present
Project Type:
Installation, Social Practice, Activism
Installation ViewInstallation, Social Practice, Activism
Code and Canvas Gallery, Resist/Release Group Exhibition
San Francisco, California, October 2018


BLNP is a tongue-in-cheek effort to blur the lines between environmental protection, national-security, immigration and racism. Inspired by the show's theme 'Resist/Release', I facilitated a collaboration-activated installation, using BLNP as an engine for political resistance. Borderlands National Park celebrates America's rapidly changing political identity by re-imagining monuments of colonialism and security architecture as tourist destinations, or relics of American excellence.
The art installation was activated by my exchange with the viewer. Posing as a border patrol agent, I offered viewers informational tourism details about the park and continued the patriotic language employed by the National Parks Service. More often than not, the viewer responded with a form of resistance. Intentionally, I stayed in character as a border patrol agent until the viewer realized the project was satiric. After this exchange, I introduced a pre-stamped postcard and a list of legislators and agencies key in altering and supporting immigration policy in the United States, enabling participants to re-enact their own acts of resistance. In total, I received 74 cards, each with personal statements of protest. I mailed the cards to respective agencies and politicians in the wake of the 2018 Midterm Elections.
