To Paint a Wall

        

This Wednesday, two of my close friends and I had the honor of unveiling the public art installation at Candler that we've been working on since returning from Spring Break.  The whole process of this installation has, without doubt, been one of the most meaningful aspects of the year.  It has also been one of the most exhausting, so, rather than reinvent the wheel, I hope you'll humor me as I pull significant chunks (i.e. most) of this post from passages I wrote for our Church on the Border group paper.  In doing so, I hope to paint a picture (pun intended) of the "what's" and "why's" of the installation, inviting you into the imaginative space we sought to create on the third floor of the theology school building:

On both sides of the Border, we heard stories; stories that challenged our assumptions, that  pushed us beyond easy and reductionist answers, and that demanded an active response.  This installation, Stories of the Wall, is that response.  In bringing the Wall "here" to Candler, our goal was to put a face to an oftentimes controversial issue and to lend a layer of proximity to a debate that can feel distant and remote.  We believe in the power of art and of narrative.  We believe in their power to transform.  We would argue, the Border can and must be transformed both spatially and conceptually if we are to resist the dehumanizing forces that blind us to our moral and theological responsibilities to all who migrate.

The process of installing Stories has at once been maddening and rewarding, draining and life-giving.  On one level, investing so much of our energy and care into an installation that will remain (at most) for a month felt rather counterintuitive: after all, why go to great lengths for a project that is to be torn down so shortly, one might very well ask.  However, we draw inspiration from the artists of Taller Yonke, who reminded us of the power of such fleeting images.  In their ability to capture the transience of life, these temporary works of art resist the capriciousness of the human eye that renders us far too quickly immune to beauty in our midst.

Moreover, for each of us, this project has taken on deep levels of personal significance. Returning from our journey to the Border felt, at times, a comparable challenge to those presented to us on the trip itself.  Having seen such vivid pictures and heard such poignant testimonies of the effects of U.S. immigration policy, how inadequate it felt to dive back into the frenetic pace of life back home without having, in some way, done something.  Stories of the Wall is our initial "something."

At the installation event, we also included an opportunity for viewers to sign a petition to eliminate the bed quota mandate in the Department of Homeland Security annual appropriation bill that, since 2007, has been unjustly serving to incentivize immigration detention.  Hannah, Ruth, and I believe that narrative and art must always be paired with action, and this particular political action resonated with us, reminding that—as residents of a state that houses two of the nation’s most notorious detention centers— Border issues do not stay neatly corralled at the Border.  If you’d like to learn more, please, please, please check out Detention Watch Network’s End the Quota campaign at http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/EndTheQuota.  Moreover, once you’ve taken a second to peruse this site, I’d love to invite you as well to add your names to this petition as a small yet potentially significant step towards guiding our nation into more just immigration practices: http://www.change.org/petitions/end-the-quota. 

Finally, as we move into Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday, I wanted to share with you the prayers we wrote and left in a bowl at our little “altar” in front of the Wall.  In pairing art, narrative, political action, and prayer, we hoped to draw concrete connections between a life of faith and a life of advocacy and solidarity alongside immigrant communities. 

Prayers for the Migrant: God, we pray for all who are making the Border crossing today.  Bring relief to aching feet, water for insatiable thirst, and comfort for weary spirits.  Grant courage and discernment as they are forced to make life and death decisions.  Thank you for being the God of all migrants, the God who promises to lead us into green pastures.

Prayers for the Detained Immigrant: God, we pray for all who are currently held in immigrant detention centers across the nation.  In the midst of environments permeated by hostility and uncertainty, God we ask that you continue to sustain, enliven, and empower every detainee.  Grant us the courage to be advocates for more humane detention practices and immigration policy.

Prayers for all Would-Be Migrants: God, we pray for all who are suffering in Latin America, for all who greatly desire to stay in their homelands and yet who feel that migrating is their only choice.  We ask that you strengthen them and grant them wisdom.  Open the eyes of U.S. citizens; help us to see the ways our nation’s policies have contributed to this context of economic desperation.  Help us to remember that our neighbors live on both sides of the Border.

Amen.