The astounding bid to designate Trump’s border wall concepts as land art
![Billed as a ‘land art exhibition’ by non-profit arts organisation MAGA](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/C4rCPDp2nnrLxFHgMZK9w9-415-80.jpg)
With the onset of 2018, the notion that Donald Trump’s Republican administration is by now splayed out and broken at the bottom of a very deep ethical void is hardly a fresh take. But ‘Prototypes’ – a new land art exhibition that recently opened in Otay Mesa, San Diego – feels like a particularly abject manifestation of these tumultuous times.
The concept screams satire. Fingers crossed it is. Curated by a US-based non-profit art organisation dubbed MAGA (what else?), the show presents eight border wall prototypes commissioned by the US government for Trump’s long-mooted barrier between Mexico and the southern United States.
In March 2017, US Customs and Border Protection made a call for proposals for border prototypes, in concrete or ‘other than concrete’, both of which are represented here. Eight contracts were awarded to six companies, and each was given 30 days to finish their 30ft tall concepts, beginning on 26 September 2017. These were built for testing (against ‘breaching, digging and scaling’) in Otay Mesa, a part of San Diego close to the Mexican border, and where they’re now on view to the public.
In architectural and design contexts it’s an objectively interesting idea. Where the water becomes murkier is in the partisan, congratulatory way the show’s press release and website sells the border wall concepts as facets of the Trump administration’s maligned security strategy – lest we forget the vitriolic 2015 campaign pronouncements of Mexicans as rapists and drug-smugglers, and the subsequent belittling of President Enrique Peña Nieto over who’d be paying the estimated £25bn cost of the border wall (Trump declared Mexico financially responsible, a notion immediately dismissed by Nieto).
What’s more, the ‘Prototypes’ website links to an on-site petition calling for the wall concepts to be designated national monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906, ‘preserved and protected for all future generations of people’ – effectively a safeguarding of the very worst of the contemporary American condition.
An elaborate parody? We can only hope. There’s a nihilistic humour in redefining Trump’s nationalism and retrograde policies as conceptual art. Bad taste, sure, but less depressing than the po-faced alternative. What a time to be alive, eh?
Left, ELTA North America prototype, $406,318. Right, Caddell Construction prototype, $344,000. Courtesy of MAGA.
Left, Fisher Sand & Gravel prototype, $365,000. Right, WG Yates & Sons prototype, $458,103. Courtesy of MAGA.
Left, Caddell Construction prototype, $320,000. Right, KWR Construction prototype, $486,411. Courtesy of MAGA.
Left, WG Yates & Sons prototype, $453,548. Right, Texas Sterling Const prototype, $470,000. Courtesy of MAGA.
INFORMATION
Tours run on a regular basis until 28 January, departing from San Diego, USA, and Tijuana, Mexico. borderwallprototypes.org
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Tom Howells is a London-based food journalist and editor. He’s written for Vogue, Waitrose Food, the Financial Times, The Fence, World of Interiors, Time Out and The Guardian, among others. His new book, An Opinionated Guide to London Wine, will be published by Hoxton Mini Press later this year.
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Alexander May, founder of LA studio Sized, on the joys of creative polymathy
Creative director Alexander May tells us of the multidisciplinary approach that drives his LA studio Sized and its offspring, a 5,000 sq ft event space and an exhibition series
By Hannah Silver Published
-
50 of America’s top creatives, photographed by Inez & Vinoodh
Photographed exclusively for Wallpaper* by Inez & Vinoodh, we present a portfolio of 50 creatives driving the current discourse on American culture and its dynamic evolution
By Dan Howarth Published
-
Nona Faustine confronts the past in New York
Artist Nona Faustine reframes New York's colonial past in an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum
By Hannah Silver Published
-
How the west won: Ivan McClellan is amplifying the intrepid beauty of Black cowboy culture
In his new book, 'Eight Seconds: Black Cowboy Culture', Ivan McClellan draws us into the world of Black rodeo. Wallpaper* meets the photographer ahead of his Juneteenth Rodeo
By Tracy Kawalik Published
-
Casa Bosques’ queer-themed book curation comes to New York’s East Village
In Pride Month 2024, Casa Bosques’ pop-up bookstore in The Standard hotel, East Village, offers a stylish haven for literary mavens
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Calling NYC grads! Sarabande Foundation invites you to an industry masterclass to pave way into the creative world
‘What Now?’ by Sarabande Foundation is a post-college guide to support graduates in making their next steps, with advice from the likes of Burberry, Thom Browne, and more
By Tianna Williams Published
-
An avant-garde Korean art movement resurfaces in LA
LA's Hammer Museum gets its teeth into avant-garde Korean art with ‘Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s’
By Anne Soward Published
-
The New York art exhibitions to see in July
Read our pick of the best New York art exhibitions to see in July, from Jenny Holzer’s ‘Light Line’ at The Guggenheim to ‘Cosmography: an exploration of space and humanity’ at Templon
By Hannah Silver Last updated