At the Maltz Museum in Beachwood, two Arizona artists are lending their artistic voices to people who've been silenced.
"El Sueño Americano: The American Dream" begins with Tom Kiefer’s photographs of the items carried by migrants who were apprehended while attempting to cross the U.S. border.
Kiefer was a janitor at the border patrol facility in Ajo, Arizona, for 11 years.
“I asked and was given permission to recover the food,” Kiefer said. “When I started doing that, I immediately encountered what was also being confiscated and discarded by the government - Bibles, rosaries, family photographs.”
His photography project documents the items he found in the trash while working at the station.
The Maltz Museum exhibition is the largest of Kiefer’s work. It’s also the first time Kiefer has invited another artist to participate in the show.
Kiefer first saw the work of Elizabeth Z. Pineda during an exhibition in Arizona.
“When I was introduced to it, I was floored,” Kiefer said. “Within moments it's like, ‘My God, this is like the Vietnam Memorial Wall by Maya Lin.’ I mean it's just that powerful.”
Pineda’s “Reverencia: Arizona Migrant Death Mapping,” is the second part of the Maltz exhibit and reflects her concern for migrants who’ve perished in the desert.
In her research, Pineda came across the website for the nonprofit Humane Borders, which includes a database of known migrant deaths in Arizona since the ‘80s.
“I sat staring at my screen horrified,” Pineda said. “I scrolled and wept. I scrolled and wept and never got to even a third of the entirety of the document.”
Pineda honors the people who died attempting to cross the border by printing the record of documented deaths on silk banners that hang from the ceiling of the museum and drape to the floor.
“I leave them mounded on the floor, thinking of the collapsing of the body, that collapsing mound that can probably speak to what happens in those last moments,” Pineda said. “As we move around them, they move with you. It is almost like they're breathing, which is something that they no longer have.”
Kiefer said he hopes this dual exhibition appeals to the viewer’s sense of humanity “and how we treat each other with dignity and respect, to have people to tap into their better self.”
Pineda said she’s been moved by people’s reaction to the show so far.
“I can see already that sense of humanity and the care for another human being has really already been present,” Pineda said. “And I'm really grateful for that.”
