Artist builds wall of cheese on US-Mexico border

Washington, March 30 (IANS) A Canadian artist is building a wall of cheese near the border that separates the US and Mexico in Tecate, California, as a way of denouncing the "waste" represented by the barrier that American President Donald Trump wants to construct.

While the Trump administration is trying to use billions of taxpayer money to build the wall, the artist, Cosimo Cavallaro, is relying on GoFundMe to acquire enough blocks of expired cheese from the Mexican state of Michoacan to complete his structure, which stands nearly 5 ft tall.

"Art unites people," the 58-year-old told Efe news on Friday.

Cavallaro quipped that he would be delighted to receive a donation from Trump, who made the promise of a border wall, the centerpiece of his 2016 election campaign.

"I can see the waste in this. It's a little bit of a waste to acknowledge a waste," the artist said of his project.

Beyond the political statement, the main objective of the sculptor and filmmaker is to convey a message of solidarity among people.

Cavallaro said that when he first arrived in Tecate, the sight of the reinforced fence topped with barbed wire left him with a "very ugly and depressive" vibe, evocative of a "concentration camp environment".

US Border Patrol agents are in the area, but they have not interfered with Cavallaro's project.

The artist's intention is to have the wall extend roughly 300 metres along the border, but the project's final shape depends on how many people donate at his GoFundMe page.

Each block of cheese costs roughly $100.

This is not the first time that Cavallaro has made art from perishable items.

His previous works include a figure of Jesus Christ made from chocolate and a bed of ham.