Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 4, No. 3, Spring 2020 | Page 11

ARTS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Abstract
Borders are not simply located in their physical locations, but exist in
other macro-political iterations of power within nation-states (Sassen
2006), are difficult to define physically, being “between” nation-states
and in motion (Nail 2016) and their enforcement has moved to sending
countries (Frelick and Kysel 2016) or nearby areas within nation-states
(Nevins 2001). Less defined borders have existed in differing amounts,
cultural, socially, and economically speaking in both macro-political
and micro-political terms (Anzaldua 1987) but when walled show a division
between globalized ideals and nationalist reality (Brown 2010).
Indeed, the U.S.–Mexico border has shifted and extended its enforcement
within the United States. Within this context, this paper asks what
role protest art about borders and sovereignty can play in: (a) fighting
racism; and (b) spatially opposing the material aspects of land loss due
to primitive accumulation, which is a cause of immigration? This paper
will analyse visual culture in Latina/o murals and art installations from
the U.S. Southwest to look at them not just as cultural artefacts, but
possibly assertions of material space that form “time images” (Deleuze
1989) that bring up violent pasts and futures to disrupt a false safety in
the present to create protest.
Keywords: U.S.-Mexico borderlands; borders; murals; installations;
land-loss; time-images
LA ESTÉTICA DE UNA FRONTERA MÓVIL: MURALISMO Y
CONTROL DEL ESPACIO EN LA FRONTERA ENTRE ESTADOS
UNIDOS Y MÉXICO
Resumen
Las fronteras no se encuentran simplemente en sus ubicaciones físicas,
sino que existen en otras iteraciones macropolíticas de poder dentro de
los estados nacionales (Sassen 2006), son difíciles de definir físicamente,
ya que están “entre” estados nacionales y en movimiento (Nail 2016)
y su aplicación se ha trasladado a países emisores (Frelick y Kysel 2016)
o áreas cercanas dentro de los estados nacionales (Nevins 2001). Las
fronteras menos definidas han existido en diferentes cantidades, cultural,
social y económicamente hablando, tanto en términos macropolíticos
como micropolíticos (Anzaldua 1987), pero cuando están amurallados
muestran una división entre los ideales globalizados y la realidad
nacionalista (Brown 2010). De hecho, la frontera entre Estados Unidos
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