In 2015, the art collective Postcommodity installed 26 ten-foot balloons—giant replicas of the commercial “scare-eye” bird deterrents used by farmers and gardeners—at the US/Mexico border. Extending away from the border fence for a mile in each direction, the project both reclaimed the open-eye symbol’s native roots and aimed to serve as a “suture,” ceremonially knitting together the communities of Douglas, Arizona and Agua Prieta, Sonora. During this artist talk, Postcommodity members Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martínez, and Kade L. Twist will discuss Repellent Fence, their practice of community-engaged land art, and themes in “2043: No Es Un Sueño,” the newest contribution to the Walker’s ongoing Artist Op-Ed series. Melding prose and poetry, the trio’s essay offers a powerful reflection on native self-determination, ethnic and national identity, and the year when whites become a minority in the Americas. The first 75 attendees to this talk, moderated by Walker Managing Editor Paul Schmelzer, get a free pamphlet version of the essay.
This artist talk is presented in connection with the opening of Postcommodity at Bockley Gallery on Friday, March 10, 6 pm.
About the Artists
Postcommodity is an interdisciplinary arts collective based in the Southwest United States. Its art functions as a shared indigenous lens and voice to engage the assaultive manifestations of the global market and its supporting institutions, public perceptions, beliefs, and individual actions that comprise the ever-expanding, multinational, multiracial and multiethnic colonizing force that is defining the 21st Century through ever-increasing velocities and complex forms of violence. The collective has exhibited internationally, including at the Biennial of the Moving Image in Belgium and the 18th Biennale of Sydney in Australia. Their work can be seen in the Whitney Biennial (March 17–June 11, 2017); the solo show, Coyotaje, at Art in General (March 24–May 26); and in Sam Wainwright Douglas’s documentary, Through the Repellent Fence: A Land Art Film. In 2018, Postcommodity will unveil a new commission at the San Francisco Art Institute.
