Artist Mely Barragan and her “The power to kill – The Kitchen Knife” at Mercado Higaldo in Tijuana,  Baja California, Mexico. Daniel and Mely Barragan are the founders of the TJ in CHINA project room in Tijuana.

Q: What is the essence of your life as an artist living on the border?

Mely: “I learned how to speak in two languages at the same time, my identity is constructed by thousands of ‘copy-pastes’. Juxtaposition is natural for border people”

“I utilize the appropriation of images to presignify their use, upon finding myself in a by-product world where we are inundated by concepts of identity based on consumption, I become empowered by this imagery without it’s game. I search for more honest visual formulas that question imposed visual formulas (industry, society, tradition, etc). I describe my process as reflections on the absurd, obsessive, fateful, grotesque, beautiful and fragmented.”

Mely Barragan at melybarragan.com/portfolio/