Opening Reception: “Borderlands” and “Explorations”

“Explorations” features the work of Christina Lorena Weisner, who incorporates scientific instruments, found objects, and elemental materials into her sculptures and installations, often integrating the equipment’s original functions in her work. “Ideally this sculpture will encourage viewers to consider the macro and micro processes through which we interact with the physical world on a daily basis. I consider myself a process-oriented artist,” she says. “I choose to begin with an object rather than a concept. … The objects I choose simultaneously reflect the nature of matter itself and humanity’s determination to make use of and understand it.”

“Borderlands” is Susan Harbage Page’s testimony and a commemoration of the courage, fear, hope and determination that continues to drive countless people to risk everything in search of a better life.  For more than a decade, she has traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border near Brownsville, Texas, to record the journeys of immigrants entering the United States. By collecting images with her camera and gathering found objects at the scene, she has created what she calls an “Anti-Archive” that documents this still-unfolding event.  “We usually celebrate our histories through the objects saved and owned by the privileged. The ‘Anti-Archive’ resists [this] tradition by saving and archiving objects left behind by anonymous immigrants coming into the U.S. from Mexico.”