MORE FROM ART

Doggone Cute Pics
From America's FirstArt Show for Dogs

Hallucinatory
Photographs by an
Outsider Artist DefyConvention

I Got Turned into a
3D Avatar, and Here's
What I Learned

A Japanese Art Collective Had a Funeralfor Liberty on the US Mexico Border
Activist artists Chim↑Pom also built a lovely treehouse from which toview the gravesite.
SHAREBeckett Mufson
Feb 11 2017, 12:10am

TWEETImages

courtesy of the artists and MUJIN-TO Production
Mononymous Japanese artist and TV personality Ellie knows what it's like to bebanned from the US, a plight at least 60,000 legal immigrants could face inthe wake of an executive order Donald Trump signed late last month. TheTokyo-based artist and her collective Chim↑Pom installed a series of artworks
along the Mexican–American border, needling the power structures andassumptions that accompany the conversation around immigration.
In December, the collective dug a grave-like hole under the wall alreadyseparating Tijuana neighborhood Colonia Libertad from the United States.
Ellie crawled into the hole, now an installation called The Grounds, setting footunder US soil, but not on top of it. The action begged the question: did she
break the law if she never set foot above the ground? Her footprints in the mudhave been preserved on site for visitors to contemplate.
Nine days before Trump was sworn into of ce, Chim↑Pom and some Colonia
Libertad locals hopped the border and held a funeral for freedom. The grassyplot of land between Mexico's wall and that of the United States is usually used
as a garbage dump by locals, but the artists found it an appropriate place for
their installation, appropriately entitled, LIBERTAD. Inscribed with theSpanish word for "liberty," the cross mimicks those hung along the border wall
facing Tijuana Airport, memorials for those who died attempting to cross theborder. "Since the cross is installed between the two new and old walls, in theborder patrol’s location, the grave of LIBERTAD can be equally seen as holding
the same meaning on the Mexican and American side," Chim↑Pom tells TheCreators Project.

Photo by Yuki Maeda

Both are visible from a DIY treehouse entitled U.S.A. Visiting Center, which
Chim↑Pom installed in summer 2016. Its position in the backyard of a selfmade house constructed against the border wall offers a sweeping view of bothcountries, including The Grounds and LIBERTAD. There, locals unable to get avisa to visit the US, usually children, can join Ellie in observing the forbidden
landscape.
Ellie has been a victim of American bureaucracy for years. Her ban comes notfrom an executive order, but actually, standard policy. While traveling toHawaii for a television shoot, Ellie was barred from entering the US because amember of her crew had ironically checked a box on a previous trip's customs
paperwork identifying himself as a "terrorist." Several members of the crew
were denied entry to the United States, including Ellie.
Every attempt to visit the country since has been rejected. America's borders
with Mexico and Canada are the closest she can get, so she's had a lot of time
to ponder the relationship between these narrow divides between nations.

Photo by Osamu Matsuda

Chim↑Pom's rst piece tackling US immigration was called COYOTE, namedfor the guides enlisted to illegally lead travelers across the border. The 2014
show at Friedman Benda Gallery consisted of a recorded Skype conversation
between Ellie and a gallerist discussing these human traf ckers. Ellie couldn't
attend the show in person, since her visas kept getting rejected, so the visitor
is trapped in the room with the discussion of coyotes, an overt reference toJoseph Beuys' 1974 performance I Like America and America Likes Me, in which
Beuys locked himself in a room with a wild coyote for three days. Chim↑Pom'swork Don't Follow the Wind, an art exhibition installed in the irradiatedFukushima exclusion zone, also deals with the nature of constructed borders.
Their current body of work has never been more pertinent, asPresident Trump's executive order to begin building an amorphous wall along
the border and Muslim ban sparked protests all over the United States. Greencard holders and uncounted refugees stranded overseas await an ongoing court
battle to determine their legal standing. In the meantime, we discussed Trump
and the nature of borders with the members of Chim↑Pom, who chose toanswer in one voice.

Photo by Osamu Matsuda

The Creators Project: What made you want to build a treehouse on theborder? Chim↑Pom: Upon considering what the United States is about, wethought it was important to think of it from the outside, since the motive wascaused by Ellie being denied entry into the country. Just around that time, wehad heard from a Mexican friend that around 40% of Mexicans can't enter theU.S. So we had the idea of building a U.S.A. Visitor Center before going toMexico, for those people along the border with American land.
Our interest in Mexico had deepened with the piece COYOTE. But the mostsigni cant part was meeting that family that lives in that unique house and thetree that stands in their courtyard. That house reusing the border wall as partof their home's wall is probably the closest house to the U.S. in the world,
beautifully overlapping their personal life with this matter between nations
called the border. To top it off, the house has 13 cheerful children runningaround barefoot everyday. It was like Tom Sawyer. And many Mexicans,including them, cannot enter the U.S.––the same state as Ellie. When we sawthat house's tree, we envisioned an art project overlapping with their life.
That's the treehouse. Tree houses have a history of being used to watch
enemies. Another incident was we learned about is an art project that was partof inSITE, which installed a telescope right by the border for local residents towatch the U.S. side, but in fact was destroyed and deemed useless. So wewanted to make something useful for the children and community. The house
is a "U.S.A. Visitors' Center," but have you received any visitors from theUS so far? What about visitors from the local community?
Some friends from L.A. visited the space, and local children play in thetreehouse everyday.

Were you worried about getting caught installing LIBERTAD and TheGrounds?
Of course we were a bit worried. But observing the local residents' lives, werealized how different their realities of the border wall and the no man's land
are compared to those who have never experienced that. They climb the wall
everyday, picking up and throwing garbage, going on walks, or going to pick upa ball that went over it. It's natural for them since it's part of their living
sphere/everyday life. The best way to go across the wall in making LIBERTAD
was to collaborate with them and tap into the rhythm of their life.
Did making LIBERTAD and The Grounds give you any insight into thenature of borders?
There's the two, old and new wall, and a border patrol car was always parked in
front of us in the no man's land, monitoring us when we were making thetreehouse. On the old wall side in Mexico were many houses and towns withpeople living cheerfully. On the other hand we went to San Ysidro many times
to research the new wall of the American side (with Ellie of course waiting inMexico), but the area around the wall was a patrolling space, with only security
cars. We wondered what the U.S. was so afraid of. Just by looking over at theU.S. with a telescope from the treehouse, the Mexican police came to questionus, saying they were requested by the U.S. security forces to do so. To top it off,
Trump is planning to build a huge wall. Even if you do such a thing, tunnels
still exist, as well as reasons for the U.S. to be afraid of invasions and terrorismon the American side. Even though it's such a big country, it's very fearful. We
thought it was like a small child.

What do you hope people take away from this project?
The circumstances surrounding U.S. immigration right now are severe. Eventhen, children who have a strong desire to play are having fun inside thetreehouse. Of course, many people become pessimistic in the worst situations,but humans also have the strength to turn them into playgrounds. If we forget
our sense of humor, survival skills, and playfulness by drowning in a cycle ofanger, hostility, retaliation, and fear, then that's exactly how art becomesdefeated by reality. Earlier this month Trump signed an executive order
ordering the immediate construction of his wall. Has this changed
how Chim↑Pom views U.S.A. Visiting Center, LIBERTAD, and The
Grounds?
We knew it was coming, but it does feel like the circumstances of Ellie and thepeople of LIBERTAD became even closer and overlapping with the world's
reality.

Why does a Japanese art collective feel the need to respond to a wall
between the US and Mexico border? How do Trump's actions affect you?
Because Ellie has not been allowed into the U.S., Ellie became interested in thefact that she was speci ed a prohibited place. She felt a connection between
Japanese people who can travel to most places, and the situation of the world.
There's a place you cannot go—it's the same with evacuees from the exclusion
zones in Fukushima and the Syrian refugees eeing to Europe. Manyindividuals are at the mercy of international politics.
People in [Colonia] Libertad call the U.S. "the other side." We felt that abstract
but universal sound resonating with us when thinking about the essence of a"wall." Beyond the speci c unit of one nation, the current international
community creates various "other sides." On the other hand, when weorganized Don't Follow the Wind in Fukushima, we made it into aninternational exhibition.

Learn more about Chim↑Pom on their website.
Related:Fukushima Lingers On in New Art Exhibition
Robotic Sculptures Will Cross the U.S.-Mexico Border
Artists Address Border Control: The Writing's on the WallSHARETWEETTAGGED: JAPAN, POLITICS, IMMIGRATION, US, MEXICO, TIJUANA, BORDERS, PERFORMANCE,DONALD TRUMP, CHIMPOM, INSTALLATION, PUBLIC ART, LIBERTAD, INTERVENTION, MUSLIM BAN,COLONIA LIBERTAD, THE GROUNDS, USA VISITING CENTER

WATCH THIS NEXT