Two California professors unveiled three pink seesaws that rest on the U.S.-Mexico border wall ― a playful and fun way to bring “joy, excitement and togetherness” to families on both sides of the border.
Ronald Rael, an architecture professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Virginia San Fratello, an associate professor of design at San Jose State, unveiled the three pink teeter-totters on Monday in an Instagram post. The installation was built in a slatted border fence that separates Sunland Park, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, according to the University of California Press.
“The wall became a literal fulcrum for U.S.-Mexico relations and children and adults were connected in meaningful ways on both sides with the recognition that the actions that take place on one side have a direct consequence on the other side,” Rael wrote in an Instagram post Monday.
In videos and photos shared by Rael, adults and kids join in on the fun, taking turns riding the seesaws.
The U.S.-Mexico border wall has become a defining part of Donald Trump’s presidency, although the hundreds of miles of new wall he has promised have yet to materialize. The president has been widely criticized for his administration’s practice of separating migrant families seeking asylum at the border.
Texas-based Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) applauded the art installation in a Monday tweet.
“Art is such a powerful vehicle for change,” the organization wrote. “A beautiful installation at our southern border that reminds us that: ‘Actions that take place on one side have direct consequences on the other.’ We are all connected. We are all one.”
Rael told international video news agency Ruptly, in the video shared by RAICES above, that he hopes this installation shows that Americans and Mexicans are equal, and the relationship between the two countries needs to be treated with care.
“There are good relations between the people of Mexico and the United States, and using the seesaw shows that we are equal and we can play together and enjoy ourselves,” he told Ruptly. “But also that the wall cuts the relationship between us. Look, what happens in one place has an impact in the other and that’s what a seesaw does, exactly that.”