Friday, May 14, 2010
Nancy McManus
Professor Shellen Greene
Art 309: Migration and Visual Art
March 19th, 2010
Outdated Boarder
Globalization according to Niru Ratnam, is the result of
“ Advances in Communications technology, such as mobile phones, satellite television and the internet, all seem to bring these and other epochal happenings around the globe into the domestic orbit of those to whom they would once have appeared remote, exotic or irrelevant.” (Ratnam,2004)
A world of connected people and ideas, able for the first time in history to connect and share with one another leads to a number of changes in traditional understanding of border concepts. This new global connection was the result of globalization an old phenomenon that increased in impact following the end of World War II. The border is traditionally recognized as the physical and conceptual separation between nations. Due to the rapid rate of globalizationpost world war II the set concept of the border began to change and for the first time was challenged. Artists working to address issues raised by the boarder, conceptually though a variety of approaches aiming to try and discover it’s true application in an increasingly interconnected world.
Working at the end of World War II and shortly before the cold war intensified, Oyvind Fahlström was the first artist to really apply new concepts about the effects of globalization, attitudes worldwide and bend the concept of borders. When Fahlström created, World Map, 1972, he based his projection on information collected from financial records, which had been newly published by the World Bank. (1) Fahlström used medieval mapping techniques to show the information he collected in one visual plane.
(Oyvind Fahlström, 1972, Privet collection, Acrylic and India ink on Vinyl mounted on wood [Image 1]).
Fahlström’s world build from capitalism, stems from Noel Carroll’s idea that,
“Capitalism, perhaps the driving engine behind the globalizing tendencies of the present, has always had a world wide ambitions with respect to markets and resources. … Globalization is merely and advanced stage of capitalism.” (Carroll, 2007)
His work questions the idea of what a nation really is, and what information is truly important to determining the idea of what comprises a “nation” or “border”.
In Fahlström’s map, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are almost entirely obsolete. Nations oceans apart are next door neighbors. Money and commerce are the new dictators of border. Currancy draws the lines in Fahlström’s map. His map is only illustrating the results of a globalizion on economies post World War II.
(Oyvind Fahlström, World Map (detail), 1972, Privet collection, Acrylic and India ink on Vinyl mounted on wood [Image 2]).
Fahlström uses a stylistic approach reminiscent of popular artistic styles contemporary to the time in which he was working. By use of this stylistic approach he is openly commenting on the “new” nature of these financially connected relationships among nations. He changes the border; it’s shape and proximity of nations to one another to show influence and connections to one another better.
“ [Fahlström’s] Map presents a topography of current historical "facts" separated from each other by borders which call to mind national borders. You soon realize these borders are random, produced by pictorial necessity, and are dictated by the amount of information they contain. (Kelly, 1995)
The border, to Fahlström is relinquished of importance geographically. When geography is no longer binding, currency becomes the separation and connection between nations.
Fahlström created a map in which the border, has little impact on geographical separation of nations, a world were nations were opened up due to the interconnectedness of a globalized world. A world where freedom to move, interact and connect would allow the push and pull of the concept of borders, setting old notions of it into ancient history. Fahlström seems to anticipate a new world as a result of globalization that would be entirely without borders.
Working at the end of World War II Fahlström and saw the world moving towards a more united front. Alighiero Boetti, on the other hand saw things very differently. He began working shortly after Fahlström but in a very different time in terms of political as well as social movements among borders. Boetti was working at the advent and though out the cold war. A time when national borders and political structures were expanding and contracting as the world struggled to find the best form of government. As the “bloodless war” between communism and capitalism waged on, borders were changing very rapidly, and international markets were opened in ways that the world had never seen before.
Boetti took a different approach to mapping the world in his piece, Map of the world, 1989.
(Alighiero Boetti,1989, New York Museum of Modern Art, Embroidery on Fabric [Image 3]).
Boetti’s map a woven tapestry, denoting each nation’s boarder by its individual flag. Was created as the result of collaborations with crafts women in Afghanistan. Boetti allowed his collaborators to choose color, flags represented, as well as layout and composition. Boetti made several of these maps from 1980 though the late 1990s. Each one took several years to complete and due to the rapid changes that took place during the cold war era often the maps were outdated by the time they were completed.
Boetti’s work “demonstrate[s], these boundaries are … involved in a constant process of flux and negotiation”. (Novarese, 1990), his work challenged the notion of the solid demarcation a border is typically understood to represent. Boetti’s use of contracted laborer from outside his own nation, effectively utilized the globalized world to create his map, and through doing this he questions what it means to be confined by a boarder that has the potential to change suddenly, and what it is to live in a globalized world so interconnected and yet unstable.
Boetti’s work can be seen as a further investigation into Fahlström’s question of where a border is to go when the world is changing and becoming more tightly “woven” together over time. Unlike Fahlström, Boetti finds these interconnected planes to be more of an issue for borders. In his map, the border becomes to issue because it is changing so quickly. The opposite of what was to be expected as a result of globalization emerges; attitudes towards finding and maintaining borders become even stronger as the world emerges from the cold war.
Shortly after the cold war was officially over, the world entered into a new era of advanced technological research and development. As a result of this, and the expansion of the European Union, the world became increasingly more connected. Information could travel around the world in a matter of minutes. International relationships were forged and strengthened by these technologies, now people worlds away could connect, share ideas and interact with each other. These changes in the world did just as much to unite people as they did to further divide over the border.
Artist Santiago Sierra approached the border concept, in the new millennium. Working in the early twenty first century he addressed the border in a world, more specifically Europe, almost unrecognizable to the Europe Fahlström and Boetti were discussing. In his Palabra tapadp. ‘Covered World, 2003, Sierra address the border as it applies to the newly expanded European union, and the effect the globalization has had on borders within the newly united Europe.
(Santiago Sierra, 2003, Venice Biennale, Venice Italy 2003, Black plastic and masking tape were used to cover the word Spain set in relief over the entrance to the pavilion [Image 4])
Sierra presented “Covered World” at the 2003 Venice Biennale in response to the outdated concept of border as it pertains to the newly expanded European Union. (2) At the end of the cold war, the progress of globalization took a rapid leap forward with the advent of the World Wide Web in the late 90’s and the further expansion of the nations included in the European Union. Outside of Sierra’s piece stood a guard, refusing entrance to anyone not holding a Spanish passport. Those who were allowed to enter only found the remnants of the installation from the 2001 Biennale. When questions about the meaning of his piece Sierra said:
“A nation is actually nothing; countries don’t exist. When astronauts went into space they did not see a line between France and Spain; France is not painted pink and Spain blue. They are political constructions, and what’s inside a construction? Whatever you want to put there. And in fact the pavilion wasn’t empty: there were leftovers there from previous shows. It was an act of respect to the history of the place. But the work was also the people who were passing by it. The piece was not the empty space but rather the situation.” (Margolles, 2004)
Sierra’s piece brings into question the importance a nation’s borders hold for those within. He questions the idea, and asks if there is anything better on the other side of a border. He presents the viewer with only the debris and trash left behind from the 2001 show. He questions the ethnic history of nations in which the boarders are restricted in a world where globalization has created a mixed and diverse population asking if national purity is a maintainable reality in such a globalized world. (3)
The impact of globalization, in it’s function of connecting locations near and far, creating new ties and relationships among nations and populations has had a great effect on the current state of our international attitude and approach to the concept of borders. Artist who work to illustrate what a borders is also address globalization and it’s effects on the overall shared world view of what it means to have a border. Fahlstrom, Boetti and Serria explore a world were borders are questioned when global structers all seem to be moving towards a more united, border free world. By exploring how borders are defined, and understood though their work, these artists are changing the idea of borders on an international level.
Fahlstrom asked how borders should be definded when borders are increasingly becoming less important and currency becomes ever more important. Boetti explored open markets and their ability bring together artists from around the world in collaborative works that express the open borders that still keep us apart. Serria then asked why we need borders when there is nothing a border can offer to it’s citizens, and asks what would be so bad with a world without walls. Together these artists belong to what Carroll refers to as “a transactional or global art world” one that allows for questions though its own ideals, one that would not be possible with out a globalized world. (4)
Endnotes
1 Nirum Ratnam, “Art and Globalization,” Themes in Contempoary art 1. (London: Yale University Press, 2004) 67
2 Nirum Ratnam, “Art and Globalization,” Themes in Contempoary art 1.
(London: Yale University Press, 2004) 67
2 Nirum Ratnam, “Art and Globalization,” Themes in Contempoary art 1.
(London: Yale University Press, 2004) 67
4 Noel Carroll, “Art and Globalization: Then and Now.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2007 65 (1): 142
Works Cited
Carroll, Noel. “Art and Globalization: Then and Now.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism,2007 65 (1): 142
Kelly, Mike. “Oyvind Fahlstrom”, Myth Science. 1995 p.
Margolles, Teresa. “Santiago Sierra”, BOMB, V.86, (Winter 2004) p. 9-13
Novarese, Renata. “Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962- 1972”, 18 March, 2010.
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/artepovera/boetti.htm
Ratnam, Nirum. “Art and Globalization,” Themes in Contempoary art 1. (London: Yale University Press, 2004) 67
Monday, April 19, 2010
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