Attending Limits: The Constitution and Upkeep of the US–Mexico Border, by Nathan Friedman
Opening Reception November 9, 2017, 6:00pm
6518 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028
With a public conversation from 7-8pm featuring Nathan Friedman and Francisco Quiñones (Departamento del Distrito), Ronald Rael (UC Berkeley), David Taylor (University of Arizona School of Art), and Jason Rebillot (Woodbury School of Architecture).
277 obelisk monuments mark the US–Mexico boundary line. Constructed in three distinct phases (1849–1856, 1891–1912, and 1964–1968), these monuments were the product of territorial negotiations, disputes that were settled ranging from the violent expansion of sovereign limits to the shifting course of a historic boundary river. Commissioned, inscribed, and placed by both the United States and Mexico, they served as unique bilateral artifacts that operated across and reflected on separate territories, forms of settlement, and philosophies of nationhood. Attending Limits: The Constitution and Upkeep of the US–Mexico Border presents the international boundary through a history of its material artifacts and the modes of representation they have motivated. Through the display of original text, animation, photographs, scale models, and maps, the exhibition theoretically frames an evolution of the US–Mexico border from single line to geopolitical territory.
Exhibition design by Departamento del Distrito with Azusa Kobayashi and Julia Novitch.
Attending Limits has been supported by a Robert James Eidlitz Fellowship and a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
