Borderline/s – Ava Hill

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The European Age of Exploration, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent processes of dispossession and enclosure have had disastrous consequences, not least of which being lasting ideologies of space and geography. Borders were often drawn up arbitrarily by politicians in armchairs or by other people in power, with little to no consideration for the land nor the people who already lived there. These borderlines continue to affect global conceptualizations of space, from the wilderness to the nation-state. Can we escape the borders of colonialism and capitalism? The following works question and subvert western geographic notions by revealing their injustices or rejecting the bounds of space entirely, instead diving into the surreal. These films raise questions about natural and unnatural, urban and rural, real and surreal. The first three films verbally criticize space, from censuring colonialism and its borders and effects, to musing on the center of the American landscape, to just questioning the natural landscape as a whole. The final three films visually question space, from juxtaposing the natural and unnatural, to using drastically contrasting, exceedingly wild landscapes, to bringing formerly imaginary spaces to reality. By raising questions about the way our current spaces function and then seeing alternative, sur-real conceptions of space, we can imagine ways to leave behind the imposed squares of demarcation that tell you where you can and can’t be, what you can and can’t do, and instead move towards expansiveness, diversity, and unity. We can move out of the mindset of individuality, competition and division (geographic and otherwise), to instead see human connections, whether that’s a mob, a group of friends, or a desire and ambition to understand, to go beyond, to fly, unbounded. 

How we make Karrabing

Karrabing Film Collective, 2020, Australia, 6:28

This work, from the series Roan-roan and connected, that’s how we make Karrabing, as a part of the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ digital exhibition Medium Earth, shows some of the members of the Karrabing Film Collective talk about their work and their people, highlighting the struggles that the indigenous Karrabing have faced as a result of colonization. A white grid that periodically spreads across the screen, encapsulating the screen like a prison, visually emphasizes the pervasiveness of the Western ideas of land, the traumatic process of colonization and dispossession, and the way they have been (quite literally) imposed upon the Karrabing. How we make Karrabing grounds us in a historical context of land and space, and it emphasizes the prevailing unification of the Karrabing across both colonial and indigenous spatial divisions. 

Q&A: Your films often use surreal elements to subvert western notions of what’s expected — Was that intentionally present here as well? How has your view of land and space, as separate from the Western hegemony, come through and shaped your films?  

Kansas Atlas (excerpt)

Peggy Ahwesh, 2019, USA, 5:14

Peggy Ahwesh uses aerial footage to critically examine “flyover country,” the literal heartland of America: Lebanon, Kansas, the geographic center of the U.S. Observant shots of the land paired with the words of Marianne Shaneen highlight some of the problems that are located at the core of America: political extremism, environmental degradation, monoculture, religious priority, unnecessary borders. Two screens are used to immerse the viewer and provide alternative perspectives, and to create visual dynamics beyond what the cameras recorded: at times, the screens mirror each other to create a beautiful, kaleidoscopic view of an otherwise monotonous landscape. Kansas Atlas cleverly meditates on geography, its borders and use of a center, and the deft use of two screens and an aerial viewpoint transcends the physical world and begins to embody the surreal: above the land, beyond reality.

Q&A: What was your thinking behind using multiple screens? This film seemed to be trying to find the issues at the literal core of America — What were the takeaways, from filming?

Intersticio (Interstice)

Elena Damiani, 2012, Peru, 5:25

In Intersticio, Elena Damiani meditates on the physical, natural world: its contradictions, its human interrogators and their methods, her own place within it, as a temporary inhabitant. She examines the interstice, the in-between space, and inhabits it: the room for questioning the nature of reality, the nature of nature. A line of investigation takes the shape of an abstract journey: Damiani is just roaming the earth, wandering with no certain end goal, no need for answers, just exploration and expansion. Images of nature flip across the screen, often matching up at the edges to reveal their similar contours, underlining the ubiquity of earth’s natural processes, but Damiani notes that even the physical world can have its otherworldly aberrations. 

Q&A: Where did the title intersticio come from, what were you thinking about with that? How would you describe your relationship with nature?

Field Notes #2: Natures

Kate Lain, 2011, USA, 3:44

Field Notes #2: Natures, is a part of a larger field notes project by Kate Lain which examines the relationship between humans and nature within the context of L.A., often using juxtaposition to poke the fluid definitions of nature and natural. This specific field note stuck out to me because of its use of space, in which Lain places a screen TV which is playing an episode of Planet Earth on a busy sidewalk. Viewers are forced to confront the two opposites, and the vast space between them. The short begins and ends with the (manufactured) wilderness of Planet Earth, with the extreme of human culture, the city street, only appearing in between — a blip in the larger scheme of things. The human segment also interprets this wilderness through a digital medium, the screen, converting it to a narrative 2D format. The title invokes multiple natures: the “nature” on the screen, and perhaps human nature as well, to simply walk through and exist in between these two realities.

Q&A: What inspired this field note, and the field note project as a whole? Did you get any reactions from people on the street, or any reactions of note, while making this?  

Pude Ver un Puma (Could See a Puma)

Eduardo Williams, 2011, Argentina, 17:26

A group of teenage boys dance through different landscapes on a quest to find a cure for their injured friend. Starting on the city rooftops, the world around them becomes progressively surreal as they travel through it, until it disappears entirely. The boys are unfazed by their location change, and act familiar with each other and the land, stalking the streets of the urban jungle. It’s the relationships between the boys that lasts throughout the spaces they travel through, just as it’s human relationships that interpellates individuals throughout their lives rather than the spaces they inhabit. Williams’ improvisational approach to filmmaking helps to create this mobile, ethereal, uncertain quality. It seems unfocused and surreal, but in its casual, unstructured way is actually closer to reality. 

Q&A: Was there any goal or message in mind when making this film? How did you choose the locations? (Where are the locations? Does it matter?) Tell us more about the filmmaking process.

Flight Rehearsals

Kiran Subbaiah, 2003, India, 4:04

The artist, Kiran Subbaiah, describes his secret attempts to fly, and is surprisingly, comedically, and charmingly able to demonstrate the fruits of his labor. This is accomplished through camera angles and spatial manipulation. Flight Rehearsals brings to life the childhood dreams that were left behind, showing us that anything really is possible. It is possible to move beyond the perceived boundaries of space if you think creatively. Reality is not fixed, it can be altered, albeit with unorthodox tools. Returning to this childlike view of the world might allow us to better move beyond the learned, societal confines of space.

Q&A: Can you explain the optical illusion that allowed you to “fly” in the film? What inspired the making of this film? (Did you wish you could fly as a child?)

Bibliography:

​​Ahwesh, P. (2019, November 18). Kansas Atlas (excerpt). https://vimeo.com/374021485

Damiani, E. (2012). Intersticio. Kadist. https://kadist.org/work/intersticio/

Karrabing, F. C. (2020). How we make Karrabing. https://vimeo.com/520316762

karrabing—Keeping country live. (n.d.). Karrabing. Retrieved August 5, 2021, from https://karrabing.info

lain, kate. (2019, June 17). Field Notes #2: Natures. https://vimeo.com/342807304

Nguyen-Dinh, T.-N. (2014). I Forgot! Vdrome. https://www.vdrome.org/eduardo-williams/

NSW, A. G. of. (2020, October 1). Roan-roan and connected, that’s how we make Karrabing. Together In Art. https://togetherinart.org/karrabing-in-medium-earth/

Subbaiah, K. (2003). Flight Rehearsals. Kadist. https://kadist.org/work/flight-rehearsals/

Williams, E. (2011). Pude ver un Puma. Universidad del Cine. https://vimeo.com/54110254