Rendering: Backlit medical imaging light-boxes, resin anatomical sculpture with surgical hardware, volcanic stone, corn, surgical implants, sound.
American Threshold: From Incision to Closure examines a specific and verifiable phenomenon: when border enforcement infrastructure increases in height, the force of impact on the human body increases proportionally. Since the expansion of thirty-foot steel barriers along the U.S.–Mexico border, trauma centers have documented dramatic increases in catastrophic pilon fractures — a shattering of the ankle that requires multi-stage reconstructive surgery, months of rehabilitation, and frequently goes untreated when patients are displaced before recovery is complete.
The exhibition translates this clinical reality into three spatial thresholds. Backlit medical lightboxes present anonymized CT scans and X-ray imagery of fractured and reconstructed bones — documentary evidence made visible. Resin anatomical sculptures of pilon fractures, fabricated with visible surgical hardware, reveal the material aftermath and the limits of repair. A fractured volcanic stone molcajete and tejolote — whose name derives from the same Nahuatl root as the French "pilon" — anchors the space as a cultural object that predates the nation-state, holding broken surgical implants and corn beside recorded testimony from patients and surgeons.
The work does not prescribe policy solutions. It documents structural injury and invites ethical reflection on what it means for a border to leave lasting fractures not only in bodies, but in the responsibilities of those tasked with healing them.
In collaboration with Dr. Taylor M. Yong, MD, MS — Trauma Surgeon, Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso.
Exhibition in development. Projected premiere: El Paso, Texas, 2028. Media: Backlit medical imaging lightboxes, resin anatomical sculpture with surgical hardware, volcanic stone, corn, surgical implants, sound.