Dividing Lines
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Dividing Lines
2025
Aluminum sheets, fans, steel fence, wall
Photo by Jacqueline Saragoza McGilvray
As a China-born and -raised immigrant artist, steeped in the symbolic legacy of the Great Wall as a national icon of Chinese civilization and shaped by the ongoing immigration issues at the U.S.-Mexico border, I created a site-specific work at Blue Star Contemporary in San Antonio—the largest city near the U.S.-Mexico border. In this work, I incorporated the layout of existing walls and locally sourced metal fencing to respond to the political landscape of South Texas and to address the misappropriation of cultural symbols in shaping perceptions of place and identity.
One of my kinetic waves is impeded by this dividing structure—its rigid, dark form stands in stark contrast to the wave’s fluid motion. The fence becomes a metaphor, embodying both the physical and psychological barriers that define the region. It serves as my response to dominant narratives surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border, and to the lived realities of families and communities shaped by these divisions.
By placing the Great Wall in dialogue with the U.S.-Mexico border fence, I aim to question not only the politics of separation, but also the appropriation of cultural symbols in shaping national identity and public perception. These walls—ancient and contemporary—are often stripped of their historical context and mobilized to reinforce exclusionary ideologies.
Though Dividing Lines, I seek to bridge global and local histories of separation, identity, and belonging, while calling attention to how cultural meanings are borrowed, imposed, or misinterpreted across borders.
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