Desire Lines, Baboquivari Peak, AZ

Delilah Montoya, Desire Lines, Baboquivari Peak, AZ, 2004, printed 2008, inkjet print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Gilberto Cardenas Latino Art Collection, 2011.52.1, © 2004, Delilah Montoya
Copied Delilah Montoya, Desire Lines, Baboquivari Peak, AZ, 2004, printed 2008, inkjet print, image: 12 3447 12 in. (32.4120.7 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Gilberto Cardenas Latino Art Collection, 2011.52.1, © 2004, Delilah Montoya

Artwork Details

Title
Desire Lines, Baboquivari Peak, AZ
Date
2004, printed 2008
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
image: 12 3447 12 in. (32.4120.7 cm)
Copyright
© 2004, Delilah Montoya
Credit Line
Gift of the Gilberto Cardenas Latino Art Collection
Mediums Description
inkjet print
Classifications
Keywords
  • Landscape — desert
  • Landscape — Arizona
  • Landscape — mountain — Baboquivari Peak
Object Number
2011.52.1

Artwork Description

Delilah Montoya's work focuses on the rich and complex histories of the landscape and communities of the borderlands between Mexico and the United States. Desire Lines: Baboquivari Peak, AZ shows the Tohono O'odham Reservation, which straddles the border of Arizona and the Sonora region of Mexico. The mountains seen in the distance are the site of the Tohono O'odham creation story. In having to travel between these regions, the people of the O'odham community become both migrants and natives within their own ancestral homeland. Scattered throughout the landscape are water jugs, placed along the reservation border to provide water to migrants on their journey. Montoya explicitly rejects the doctrine of Manifest Destiny and the misconception that these lands were unexplored terrain prior to the invasion of white settlers and the creation of borders between two nations.

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