Import Export
Installation, Miami Art Project 2000-1
Miami, FL
A series of billboards were produced in response to the area along the Miami River. Now a more marginal residential and commercial corridor, the site has a rich ethnic history of power, ownership and succession -- from Native American to Spanish to English and back to Spanish -- which mirrors that of the city.
The Haitian, Dominican, and Salvadoran crews that work on this small, shallow-draft port were photographed in the format of class pictures, and these are matched with images of Miami from tourist brochures: the gleaming skyline, a pleasure cruiser in the grand Port of Miami, or a gilded baroque interior from the '20s. The billboards were posted throughout the varied neighborhoods that flank the river, made up of Cuban, African-American and Anglo residents, introducing the newest immigrants into the more established colonies.