Fallen Borders
To view animation click here:Fallen Borders
altered atlas, collage, gouache
12 1/2 x 11 3/4 x 11 1/2 in.
2014
A similar piece to Shifting Borders is Fallen Borders, but every page of the latter book is altered by cutting, drilling or sanding. Fallen Borders has been articulated as an editorial, a clash between nations. Nothing has been added to the book. Both the front and back covers expose the layers of materials, the green leather and the yellow foam cushioning, looks like spaghetti squash spilling out beyond its borderline. Each of the five chapters has their contents removed depending upon the layout of the columns of text, maps and photographs. In the second to last chapter entitled, ‘Atlas of the Bible Lands,’ using the tip of a small belt sander I erode the paper alluding to climate change that is drastically altering our planet. The pages with reproductions and maps result in an overlay of faux languages of both Arabic and Hebrew. There’s a synthesis, a place together, between the diacritic vowels, the dots and consonant pointing, of the ‘Tashkeel’ in Arabic and in Hebrew, ‘Nikud.’ Fallen Borders can also be read from back to front as in reading Arabic and Hebrew.