migajas (32.53384° N, 117.12311° W)

2024
Embossments and imprinted rust from fragments of the US/Mexico border wall that fell upon the crossing of two men, on legal-size paper.

Text by Mariela Acuña:
Leticia Pardo’s series of embossed paper feature what appears to be minimal representations of rock formations. The (bas-relief) forms, however, correspond to fragments of the US-Mexico border which wears and crumbles down each time a person crosses it. In one of her multiple visits to the border, (in June of 2021), the artist collected these fragments after witnessing two people crossing it. The embossments record the remnants of the heroic passage of people from one side of the wall to the other, contributing to the gradual collapse of what we (otherwise) understand as a permanent structure. In previous works by Pardo, (who is from Mexico City and based in Chicago), the border wall is referenced as a series of wounds on the landscape. This installation points to the possibility of destroying the wall and returning the landscape to its natural state.