Untitled (from Picturing Paradise, InSite2000)

Valeska Soares’ untitled piece is related to an installation she created for the San Diego/Tijuana collaborative art project InSite of 2000. She placed several mirror-like panels inscribed with texts from "Invisible Cities" by Italo Calvino directly on the border wall, as a way of creating the illusion that the barrier was undermined by a series of gaps. Soares chose Calvino’s book about the relationship between two cities as a metaphor for Tijuana and San Diego, suggesting through her choice of materials that these two towns mirror each other. Here, the two panels meet in a corner, implicating the viewer in the work while revealing the subtle presence of the text on the reflective surface.