Border Craft
March 1–June 15, 2025
Border Craft is a group exhibition featuring contemporary artists employing craft practices to address the geopolitical realities of borderland regions, including San Diego–Tijuana. The works on view, along with a series of accompanying public programs, serve as a feminist and critical counterpoint to dehumanizing systems designed to divide people and cultures. Tanya Aguiñiga, one of the exhibiting artists and a Longenecker-Roth Artist in Residence at UC San Diego’s Department of Visual Arts, describes her art and activism at the US–Mexico border as a “song to collapse the wall.” This statement points to the sense of interconnection and poetic resilience present across the works on display, which include ceramics, furniture, quilts, weavings, embroidery, video, and performance.
Participating Artists:
Tanya Aguiñiga, Jackie Amézquita, Margarita Cabrera, Sofía Córdova, Isidro Pérez García, tercas (Mely Barragán and Irma Sofia Poeter), Marisa Raygoza
Image: Border Craft, Installation Views, Mandeville Art Gallery, March 1-June 15, 2025 (Photos by Pablo Mason)
Border Craft is made possible by Teiger Foundation
Public Programs
Saturday, March 1, 2025, 2–6 pm: Border Craft opening celebration
Location: Mandeville Art Gallery
This event coincides with the Graduate Open Studios at the Visual Arts Facility. Open Studios will feature MFA and PhD artists’ open studios, exhibitions, screenings, and publications produced in the Department of Visual Arts. Exhibiting artist Isidro Pérez García performs at 3pm.
Wednesday, March 12th, 2025, 5-6pm: Reading by students in LTWR113: Intercultural Writing Workshop, led by Dr. Amy Sara Carroll (Associate Professor of Literature and Writing)
Location: Mandeville Art Gallery
Wednesday, April 2, 2025, 5-6pm: Fabiola Carranza’s The Mexican Husband / Un marido mexicano
Location: Mandeville Art Gallery
This bilingual adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s one-act play “The Jewish Wife” (1937) follows the events of a husband’s final night with his wife in Los Angeles before running for the Mexican border. The Mexican Husband / Un marido mexicano is an account of the ways in which exclusionary immigration policies play out. It asks questions about the state of humanity in an era of immigration enforcement, border walls, and enduring prejudice, both visible and invisible. Fabiola Carranza is an artist, educator, and PhD candidate in Art Practice at UC San Diego.
Wednesday May 21, 2025, 1-2pm: Border Art in Special Collections & Archives
Location: Geisel Instruction Room 1
Explore border-related arts collections held by UC San Diego’s Special Collections & Archives, including artworks, artifacts, and artists’ books from the Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo, inSite Archive, and more.
This librarian-guided exploration is geared specifically for undergraduate students across all disciplines. Dive deeper into the regional historical contexts of the Border Craft exhibit and learn about how you can use archives to inspire your own creative projects and research.
Tuesday, May 27, 2025, 6:30-8pm: Guest lecture by exhibiting artist Jackie Amézquita. Organized as part of the Department of Visual Arts’ Guest Lecture Series
Location: SME 149, Structural & Materials Engineering, UC San Diego
Leer en español
Border Craft (Fábrica frontera)
March 1–June 15, 2025
Border Craft (Fábrica frontera) es una exhibición grupal que presenta artistas contemporáneos haciendo uso de prácticas artesanales para abordar las realidades geopolíticas de las regiones fronterizas, incluyendo la de San Diego–Tijuana. Las obras exhibidas, junto con una serie de programas públicos que las acompañan, funcionan como un contrapunto feminista y crítico para los sistemas deshumanizados y diseñados para dividir a la gente y a las culturas. Tanya Aguiñiga, unas de las artistas presentes y artista residente de longenecker-Roth del departamento de Artes Visuales de UC San Diego, describe su arte y al activismo en la frontera de E.U. y México como "una canción para derrumbar el muro". Esta declaración apunta hacia el sentido de la interconexión y de la resiliencia poética presente a través de las obras mostradas, las cuales incluyen cerámica, muebles, colchas, tejidos, bordados, video y performance.
Artistas participantes:
Tanya Aguiñiga, Jackie Amézquita, Margarita Cabrera, Sofia Cordova, Isidro Pérez García, tercas (Mely Barragan e Irma Sofia Poeter), Marisa Raygoza
Imagen: Tanya Aguiñiga, Somos una tela continua, 2023
Objetos encontrados en el LA River, terracota a fuego lento, piedras del LA river, algodón teñido con terracota y cuerda de algodón
Esta imagen es cortesía de la artista y de Nazarian / Curcio
La realización de Border Craft (Fábrica frontera) es posible gracias a la Teiger Foundation
Programas públicos
Sábado 1 de marzo, 2025, 2-6 pm: Border Craft (Fábrica frontera) festejo inaugural
Isidro Pérez García (UC San Diego, MFA en artes visuales, ’22), artista que forma parte de la exhibición, interpreta Tuleño Weaves the Center (Tuleño teje el centro) a las 3 pm.
Este evento coincide con los estudios a puerta abierta de los recién egresados en las instalaciones de artes visuales, incluye vistitas de estudio de artistas del MFA y del doctorado, exposiciones, proyecciones y publicaciones producidas por el Department of Visual Arts (Departamento de artes visuales).
Miércoles 12 de marzo, 2025, 5-6 pm: Lectura de los estudiantes en LTWR113: Taller de escritura intercultural dirigido por la Dra. Amy Sara Carroll, Profesora adjunta de literatura y escritura en UC San Diego
Miércoles 2 de abril, 2025, 5-6pm: Fabiola Carranza’s The Mexican Husband / Un marido mexicano
Esta adaptación bilingüe de la obra en un solo acto de Bertolt Brecht, "la mujer judía" (1937), sigue los sucesos de la última noche de un esposo y su mujer en Los Ángeles antes de correr hacia la frontera mexicana. The Mexican Husband / Un marido mexicano es un recuento sincero de los modos en los que las políticas excluyentes migratorias se desarrollan. Se pregunta acerca del estado de la humanidad en una era de imposiciones migratorias, de muros fronterizos y de prejuicios perenes, visibles e invisibles. Fabiola Carranza es artista, educadora y candidata al doctorado de Prácticas artísticas en UC San Diego.
Miércoles 21 de mayo, 2025, 1-2 pm: Arte fronterizo en Special Collections & Archives (Colecciones Especiales y Archivos)
Lugar: Geisel Instruction Room 1
Se pueden explorar las colecciones de arte relacionadas con la frontera resguardadas en Special Collections & Archives (Colecciones especiales y archivos) de UCSD, que incluyen obras de arte, artefactos y libros de artistas del Border Art Workshop / Taller de Arte Fronterizo y del archivo inSite. Esta búsqueda está dirigida específicamente a los estudiantes universitarios de todas las disciplinas. Los asistentes se sumergirán en los contextos regionales históricos de la exhibición Border Craft (Fábrica frontera) y aprenderán cómo pueden usar los archivos para sus propias investigaciones y proyectos creativos.
Martes 25 de mayo, 2025, 6:30-8 pm: Conferencia de la artista invitada a la exposición Jackie Amézquita, organizada como parte de la Guest Lecture Series (Serie de conferencistas invitados) del Department of Visual Arts (Departamento de artes visuales)
Lugar: SME 149, Structural & Materials Engineering, UC San Diego
Todos los eventos son gratuitos y se llevan a cabo de manera presencial en la Mandeville Art Gallery, al menos que se indique de otro modo.
Resources
Resource List
Resource list of organizations and researchers working on border issues at UC San Diego and locally, compiled by winter 2025 Academic Internship Program (AIP) participant Abby Filson. The list includes ways to learn more and/or get involved. If you would like to add to the list, please email mandevilleartgallery@ucsd.edu
Research at UC San Diego
Center on Global Justice: https://cgjustice.ucsd.edu
UC San Diego Community Stations: https://communitystations.ucsd.edu/casa/index.html
Center for US/Mexico Studies: https://usmex.ucsd.edu/
US Immigration Policy Center: https://usipc.ucsd.edu/
Bioregional Center/Wellspring: https://bioregionalcenter.ucsd.edu/projects/alianza.html
Center for Comparative Immigration Studies: https://ccis.ucsd.edu
Nature, Space & Politics: https://naturespacepolitics.ucsd.edu
Border Art in UC San Diego Library’s Special Collections and Archives
Border Arts Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo
- Finding Aid: https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/collection/bb81017199
- Digital Collection: https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/collection/bb81017199
inSite
- Finding Aid: https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/collection/bb9661755
- Digital Collection: https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/collection/bb2910091r
Cinewest Archive
- Digital Collection: https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/collection/bb7375503h
Dedicated Programs at UC San Diego
Human Rights and Migration Minor: https://roosevelt.ucsd.edu/academics/Academic%20Opportunities/human-rights-and-migration-minor/index.htm
Mexican Migration Field Research Program: https://las.ucsd.edu/program-exploration/mexican-migration-field-research-program/index.html
UC San Diego Departments Offering Courses in Border Studies
Chicanx and Latinx Studies Minor: https://cls.ucsd.edu/
Department of Literature: https://literature.ucsd.edu/
Department of Visual Art: https://visarts.ucsd.edu/
Department of Music and Dance: https://theatre.ucsd.edu
Student Organizations
Fronteras Saludables (Healthier Borders): https://studentorg.ucsd.edu/Home/Details/16982
Society of Immigrant and Refugee Health: https://studentorg.ucsd.edu/Home/Details/18674
Nonprofits and Mutual Aid in the San Diego/Tijuana Region
AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides): http://www.ambosproject.com/
Border Angels: https://www.borderangels.org/
Casa Familiar: https://www.casafamiliar.org
Flying Samartians: https://www.flyingsamaritans.net
Jewish Family Service: https://www.jfssd.org/volunteer/support-refugee-immigrant-families/
La Maestra Amnesty Center: https://lamaestra.org/