Border Bang

Book excerpt: WHEN MEXICAN FOLKORE MEETS U.S. POP CULTURE!!!! Border Bang is a passionate love letter to the Tijuana and US border, documenting the bootleg artifacts sold to locals and tourists alike. Reappropriating the bombardment of pop culture images is the border’s reaction to global issues and events, telling viewers and consumers not to glorify these situations but rather to acknowledge them through their subversive presentation. Border artisans and shysters digest the influx of international popular culture, reappropriating and reconfiguring images to express themselves and empower objects with subversive ideas masked underneath bold colors and text. Raised in Tijuana, Gutierrez crossed the border to the US to attend elementary and middle school. Each day, he was dazzled and entranced by the objects being sold, creating alternative narratives to the cartoon characters and celebrity portraits that he saw. Border Bang is a reflection of his childhood narrative, using images from Mickey Mouse to Tupac Shakur to convey the reflections and meditations of global events as witnessed by the border, exploring his love affair with Mexican pop and folk culture.