BFF-09 Detained migrants’ trash inspires US janitor’s art

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US-IMMIGRATION-ART

Detained migrants’ trash inspires US janitor’s art

LOS ANGELES, Dec 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – During a decade as a janitor at a US
border station, Tom Kiefer gathered the trash left behind by thousands of
undocumented immigrants, piecing together the histories of those who arrived
seeking a better life.

Everyday objects from clothes, medicine and toys to handwritten letters
were confiscated by officials as dangerous or “non-essential” items, leaving
photography student Kiefer to sift through fragments of their owners’
struggles.

“El Sueno Americano/The American Dream”, at Los Angeles’s Skirball Cultural
Center through March, displays more than 100 photographs of these remnants,
which the artist collected in secret at the Ajo, Arizona station between 2003
and 2014.

From a distance, many of the works look like abstract modern art, but peer
more closely and the contents become clear: in one, dozens of syringes and
cartons containing pills and ointments are carefully laid out across a bright
yellow canvas.

Close by, around 50 toothbrushes — some extremely worn-out and filthy —
are arranged on a blue background.

Another photograph captures cell phones of all shapes, sizes and
technologies spanning the decade.

For Dominga Rodriguez, a 48-year-old who crossed through the desert from
Mexico’s Oaxaca state almost 30 years ago, it is easy to picture the faces of
these items’ owners.

“It’s emotional because I also came in the same way,” she told AFP as she
visited the exhibition, her voice cracking. “We left our clothes, combs,
wallets, phone numbers, not knowing if we were coming back or not.”

Every year, hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants are detained
while crossing into the US from Mexico.

“One of the things I think these photographs remind us of is that even
small injustices can be the first step on a path towards things that are
totally inhumane,” said curator Laura Mart.

“It may seem like not a big deal to take away somebody’s shoelaces or to
take away somebody’s toothbrush,” she said.

“But when you start doing that, it makes you accept that treating people
that way is OK — then before you know it, it leads to things like children
separation.”

A Trump administration “zero tolerance” policy launched in 2018 saw
thousands of children separated from their parents at the border, a tactic
apparently meant to frighten the families, before the government backed down
amid a torrent of criticism.

Tough border controls are a focus of President Donald Trump’s re-election
campaign.

Mart highlighted a photograph of rubber ducks, some caked in mud — a
seemingly sentimental choice, but with a pragmatic purpose.

“Rubber ducks were used to mark the trail,” she explained.

“They were used for navigation so that groups of migrants can find their
way through the cactus and through the brush.”

BSS/AFP/RY/09:45 hrs