The boundaries that men use to separate countries are more than merely lines, and the social and political effects that result from their creation play a powerful role in defining national identity.
I checked out Thursday night’s opening reception of “Border Myths/Border Realities,” an insightful exhibit now on display in the University Art Museum that addresses these topics, and I was thoroughly impressed by the solid punch packed by its thought-provoking pieces.
The exhibit, which was curated by graduate students in CSULB’s museum studies program, examines the concept of world borders from multiple angles in order to derive truth from the conflicting myths and misconceptions that pervade people’s perceptions of what a border represents.
The six artists featured in the exhibit analyze the different roles a border fills and the various meanings it holds for individual people and cultures. They address physical, ideological and psychological borders alike, and use their respective media to discuss how borders affect identity and question to what extent these lines are real or imagined.
I particularly enjoyed Whitney Stolich’s color photographs, which pair images from the U.S. side of a border town with those from the Mexican side. Each half looks nearly identical, which I felt made a key statement about our common humanity and the man-made artificiality of borders. Stolich’s work made me think about the fundamental absurdity of borders when it comes to the cultural divisions they create, for, no matter what country we live in, we’re all just people sharing the same land.
The exhibition draws attention to the political landscape on a broad scale, but it is careful not to leave out the significance of personal experiences.
Abdelali Dahrouch’s sand sculpture references the specific injustices that result when borders create fierce ideological divisions. He recounts the story of a Palestinian woman who, forbidden from passing beyond an Israeli checkpoint, gave birth there because she could not reach a hospital. She named her baby after the Arabic word for “checkpoint.”
“A growing number of infants born at Israeli checkpoints are named ‘Hajez’ as a bitter reminder of their birthplace and collective struggle as a people under siege,” Dahrouch explained.
In his piece “Sheik Attack,” Eddo Stern uses the larger political climate to evaluate the impact of technology on people’s feelings and level of attachment to borders, hostility and violence. He innovatively used clips of war-themed video games to create a montage that comments on how virtual reality has desensitized a generation to the horrors and gravity of war.
On display in the Wesley G. Hampton Gallery of the UAM until Dec. 16th, “Border Myths/Border Realities” is very effective in raising pertinent questions about how we define a country and the substantiality of the lines governments draw. Whether physical or psychological, real or imaginary, the border has not lost any significance in the political discussions of today, and it is important to consider all of its many facets as we draw conclusions about what it means to us.
