Art Project Gets Some Feedback In the Form of Spray Paint
The red stripes bleed into the white on the American f lag reversed in a sign of distress. Old shoes, hats, bras, dollar bills, passport folders and a water bottle are attached to the fabric.
But it was the sight of people using spray paint and markers to write on it that apparently upset a caller to Journal North. A man who identified himself as Jimmy Hayes, an El Paso veteran, reported what he saw and said, “This is a travesty .... Goddamn, they can’t be doin’ that!”
The flag is part of an arts installation at El Museo de Cultural put together by Neil Bernstein, an artist who brought Golden Gates/Bridge Over Troubled Waters to Santa Fe at the invitation of museum director Tom Romero. That artwork is a memorial to the many immigrants who die in the desert entering the United States illegally.
Bernstein said he put up the flag backwards Wednesday to signify backward thinking. “We are a country of immigrants, but we have become anti-immigrant,” he said. According to Bernstein, he left some spray paint and markers in front of the flag, and came back Thursday morning to see “Mexican construction workers” using the implements to write on the flag. They mostly spoke Spanish, he said, and he was unable to communicate much with them.
The sentiments written on the flag were eloquent. “Libertad, esperanza, amor, fe” were written across one white stripe, with the helpful translations of “freedom, hope, love, faith” written above. Also written: “Donde esta la justicia?” (Where is the justice?) and “si tu quieres todos la puedes,” which artist Jaime Becerril, who had stopped by to chat with Bernstein, translated as “If you want, you can accomplish anything.”
In English, red spray paint said, “Santa Fe Art Nazis” above a swastika.
Bernstein said he didn’t ask anybody to write on the flag, but left the materials there if someone wanted to express themselves.
El Museo director Tom Romero, when he returned the Journal’s call, said he hadn’t heard about people writing on the flag and hadn’t seen it. He pointed out that the U.S. Constitution supports freedom of speech and said, “the policy El Museo has is that we do not censor the artist .... We do try to be sensitive to the sensitivities of the community,” but not to the extent of telling an artist what he can or can’t do.
“I’ve seen some things at other art galleries that were much more offensive to me,” Romero added. “I think idiocy is much more offensive than writing on the flag.”
Sandra Brice, director of events and marketing for the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corp., said she wasn’t aware of the writing on the flag, but added, “That’s a shame to hear.”
“We are not in the business of judging art,” she said, adding that the corporation is concerned about safety. She was referring to some previous controversy over Bernstein’s installation, in which the corporation’s director asked that the art installation of the “Golden Gates” get a construction permit and be surrounded by a fence to prevent people from climbing on it.
Brice said she wasn’t sure whether the project had met safety requirements Thursday. It did have a fence around it and was secured by webbed straps, as well as a wooden frame.
A week ago, the assemblage was found collapsed over the roof of the museum. Bernstein said it was the work of vandals, since a strap was cut that had secured a gate and other straps holding the project in place had been removed.
An eyewitness had said the wind blew it over, but Bernstein said that was possible only if the straps securing the artwork were tampered with.
The artwork previously had been assembled in Arivaca, Ariz., where news stories reported it being toppled by vandals in February. Bernstein claimed he had been threatened by Minutemen, volunteers who patrolled the area to capture people entering the country illegally, and that they likely vandalized his artwork.
Romero said he hopes Bernstein’s art will spark a dialogue over immigrants and their place in Santa Fe, noting that many of them most likely are working to build the Railyard itself, as well as the city’s convention center.
