Borderland Collective Northern Triangle

Artists' Talk and Reception
Wednesday, November 15, 5:30pm
Wilson Hall's Concert Hall

In 2014, more than 68,000 unaccompanied children were apprehended on the U.S./Mexico border, double the number from the previous year. Of this group, the majority are from the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Known as the Northern Triangle, this region has a long and complicated relationship with the United States. Civil wars in the 1980s, deportation policies, the drug war, border issues, trade agreements, unjust economic structures, political corruption, poverty, human trafficking, and many other situations have all contributed. Originally commissioned by Blue Star Contemporary, Northern Triangle is an exhibition created by Borderland Collective that opens a space for constructive dialogue and exchange around the current Central American refugee crisis along the U.S./Mexico border and the long and complicated history of U.S. intervention in which it is irrevocably entangled.

Borderland Collective Collaborators: Lead: Erina Duganne, Mark Menjivar, and Jason Reed; Artists: Adriana Corral, Noah Sadowski, Vincent Valdez, Jennifer Whitney, and Ricky Yanas; Community/Organizations: Stacey Merkt, Jack Elder, Library of Congress, the National Archives, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, The South Texas Human Rights Center, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), University of Texas School of Architecture Migrant Detention Project, and Gemini Ink.

Image details: Northern Triangle, installation view at Blue Star Contemporary