2018
HD Sinlge-channel video (looped, 5 mins.)
i-35 is an ephemeral line of natural light seeping through the crevice of an overpass along the I-35 Highway, just a few hundred yards from the border between Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. This highway serves as the primary ground trading route linking North America and Latin America, with over 11,000 eighteen-wheelers crossing daily from Mexico into the U.S. It is a pivotal axis for international trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The fleeting presence and sudden disappearance of light beneath the overpass evoke a stark political contradiction: the rise of paternalistic border policies enforcing harsh restrictions on international crossings clashes with the norms of a globalized economic order. This interplay of light and shadow mirrors the tension between open trade and the rigid control of human movement, underscoring the fraught dynamics of modern border politics.