San Diego-based artist Roberto Salas created an installation titled Los vendedores de Tijuana. Drawing from his own experience of selling a variety of things as a child, Salas made a selection of the traditional items one would find being offered while waiting to cross the border from Mexico to the United states. Anyone having been through that experience will know that vendors roam the rows of cars with all their wares draped across their bodies, stacked on their heads, or filling their arms. Salas chose to use the seemingly endless plaster cast figures made to appeal to American tourists, such as Mickey Mouse, skulls, hamburgers, Madonnas, Ninja Turtles, and so on, to create what he referred to as “monumental shamans of kitsch.”
Organizer: Kruglak Gallery, MiraCosta College
Curator: Leslie Nemour
Venue: Kruglak Gallery, MiraCosta College, Oceanside