Seven Sculptures

Artwork consists of 7 sculptures situated on a snake-like path winding through the trees and plaza area of the border station. The pathway is incised into the pavement. The artworks vary in shape and scale and quotations or texts will accompany several pieces.  The sculpture can be outlined as follows:

1) " Utopian globe"  A piece of solid terrazzo with inscribed grid lines, 61" high that will be lighted at night.  Centrally located on the plaza near the building entrance with sandblasted names of imaginary, futuristic and past civilizations and seas such as El Dorado, Utopia, Xanadu, Lu Puta, Canaan, Eu Shpia, Popo and Atlantis.

2)  "Voices"   An enlarged head placed horizontally on the plaza pavement.  Made of terrazzo measuring 60 x 130 inches, the artwork acts like a beacon with the mouth open.  Text by the poet Alfonso Hermosillo from his poem "Tierra" or "Earth" stating "Our mouths shall scatter not kisses, but secrets of light" or "Nuestra Boca de besos espancia secretos de humbre."

3) "Language Wheel," a twelve-foot conically-shaped terrazzo sculpture that contains a thirty-character bronze alphabet on the rim of the piece.  Where the artwork touches the pavement plaza, it imprints on the plaza a path of text.  The shape can refer to a megaphone or hearing device that leads to an opening at the central point.

4)  "Rockchair," a 5 x 10 foot sculpture, was inspired by Lere's visit to the site and the many rocks within the region's landscape. Lere reinterprets the traditional rocking chair into two seats, backs together, which is designed to allow people to sit and rest.  Text reads "Attention must be paid when your neighbor's back is to your wall."

5)  The next sculpture, "A Monument or Origins of the Southern Hemisphere," is a large mountainous cone-shaped artwork of carved stone.  Spiraling through the piece is a path/drain based on the Coriolis Force, a fictitious force used mathematically to describe


motion, particularly the earth's rotation.  Because of the earth's rotation, water in the Northern Hemisphere drains downward, however, in the Southern Hemisphere water drains upward or counterclockwise.  This piece demonstrates the Cariolus Force; the water flows counterclockwise.   The text reads "By indirections find directions out."

6)  "Wheeled Seat" is a six-foot terrazzo sculpture that mimics a wheelchair.  On either side of a raised chair are two wheels representing the words of writer Paul Theroux: "All travel is equal parts pursuit and flight." 

7)  To reinforce the natural environment, Lere used another stone to create "Stone Passageway," which includes the quote "A path however narrow and crooked which you can walk with."  The sculpture is a boulder which has been cut approximately 2 feet wide in a jagged line. The quote refers to an old Mexican proverb about choosing a path for one's life.    For Mr. Lere, the sculpture and the entire plaza, evoke an emotional ride  the fear and the salvation, the good and the bad of the journey into a new country.