Hormigueo Poem
2024
Custom nameplate necklaces + Performance + Digital Prints
Hormigueo Poem is a text that was inspired by reflections upon what is spoken and unspoken at the point of inspection when crossing the U.S./Mexico border through a designated port of entry. The artists authored the poem as a series of custom-fabricated nameplate necklaces. The necklaces were worn by a series of performers who crossed the U.S./Mexico border in sequence through the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Sep. 14, 2024.
The project is inspired by the notion of “hormigueo,” which translates to something like “ant-ing” in Spanish, a common practice of crossing small quantities of a given good across the border, in various trips or by numerous people instead of crossing a large quantity in one go – a way of avoiding restrictions, tariffs, confiscation or increased inspections at border checkpoints. Also a metaphor for how transborder people collectively bear the indignities and violences of the crossing.
The total value of the work (all 15 necklaces) is $10,001, for example, which renders the work a “negotiable instrument” of monetary value that would need to be declared at the inspection point in the Port of Entry if crossed by a single individual. Given that it was crossed collectively there was no need to declare it as such – illustrating the potential of collective movement and agency of transborder citizens.
The poem reads:
THIS IS A LOOP
BOUND BY HEARTBREAK
LINES DRAWN AS WEAPONS
CUTTING ACROSS
YOU & US
PARECEMOS DISCO RAYADO
BAILAMOS EN EL FILO
I AM
AN OTHER YOU
THIS HURTS YOU TOO
CORAZON QUE NO SIENTE
OJOS QUE NO VEN
APAGA TU TEMOR
PRENDE LA LUZ
HACIA LA VIDA
Given that each individual is photographed upon crossing the border, there is a photographic record of the poem that now exists in a U.S. government database.