Corroded metal bodies fill the gallery room, having been recovered from the base of a 150-foot cliff from the waters of Palos Verdes. From a car door, that seems to defy gravity, suspended in mid-air near a wall to a car engine laid out on a table upheld by green metal bins. Both may have once formed a part of an automobile body, but now, dissected, have reincarnated into art.
California State University, Long Beach fine arts major Diego Palacios aims to represent the physicality of metal in international borders in his gallery “Almost Always Half Way There.”
“These are not novel ideas,” said Palacios. “These are recurring themes for people who contemplate what borders are about. It’s actually quite absurd the idea that borders can [separate] people.”
Made of metal and guarded by round-the-clock police enforcement, the Mexican-American border is reflected in Palacios’ gallery.
The gallery’s most prominent installation invites visitors through a makeshift viewfinder where the viewer sees video clips of the artist navigating the waters lying between Tijuana and the U.S. border. In the viewfinder is a clandestine camera that records the viewer’s eye and projects it behind a model border made of dozens of parallel metal bars located above the viewfinder.
“Everybody has something to pull from the concept of a border and what [the gallery] does is spark a conversation if nowhere but at least in their mind,” said Palacios.
In lowering down to look through the viewfinder, visitors immediately feel diminutive before the towering border gate.
“The effort of having to lower themselves to a scale of how the height of a person would be if the were staring up at the border,” Palacios said.
Palacios gave up a career in a solar panel company, swapping his installation tool belt for the chance to create art installations. After 12 years out of school, he enrolled at CSULB to complete his BFA in sculpture.
Palacios said his two most valuable artistic tools are ones he always carries with him.
“It’s a toss up between my mind and my body because I feel really grateful that I can still use my body,” Palacios said. “I know artists that suffer from some kind of physical ailment and they wished they can use their body more vigorously. I am grateful for my health, but I think I use my mind more. If for some reason I couldn’t use my body anymore I’d still be able to create art.”
The CSULB School of Art displays student galleries in Fine Arts building 2-4, with new exhibits each week. Palacios’ “Almost Always Halfway There” exhibit can be experienced from noon to 5 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, and from noon to 7 p.m. on Wednesday.