Photographs, 1997

For INSITE97, Ken Lum created two large-scale photographs that were shown at the Centro Cultural Tijuana. The first photograph showed a young girl in San Diego talking on a cell phone about plans to eat either Mexican or Chinese food. The second photograph, with text from a popular Mexican children’s rhyme, shows a young boy selling American soda and candy. The work suggests the blurring of cultural borders despite the adamantly divisive physical barrier. As a Canadian living near the northern US border, Lum stated that his experience in San Diego and Tijuana during INSITE97 caused him to rethink his notion of borders, and consider how the United States, with its pervasive capitalism and culture, borders nations throughout the world.

Curators: Jessica Bradley, Olivier Debroise, Ivo Mesquita, and Sally Yard
Venue: Centro Cultural Tijuana