A 'Repellent Fence' Stared Across the US-MEX Border Karina Taylor - World Policy Blog
go to original December 10, 2015

For four days in October this year, the Mexican-American border featured a curious kind of boundary: a two-mile line of yellow, helium-filled balloons, painted with unblinking eyes, floating 50 feet above the ground. World Policy Journal corresponded with the designers of this "Repellent Fence," the art collective Postcommodity, on the project's immediate effect, and on challenging preconceived notions of surveillance, boundaries, and the indigenous past.

WORLD POLICY JOURNAL: People who viewed this installation (and similar projects undertaken by Postcommodity) were confronted with an unblinking eye staring back at them. What reactions did you hope to bring to the surface when that interaction took place? Fear? Introspection? A sense that someone is watching?



POSTCOMMODITY: We were inspired by the unblinking eye of the cameras, border patrol binoculars, and aerial aircrafts that monitor and surveil those lands. We wanted to remind those who visited the installation from faraway lands of this fact of life for people of the region. For the local people, we wanted to acknowledge that we understood this constant invasion into their lives. For the militarized agencies for this surveillance, we wanted to turn the intruding reflection back upon them, fear and introspection staring at themselves in the mirror.

The eye was also interpreted by residents of both communities as representing the ‘awakening of their indigeneity.’

Read the rest of the interview at World Policy Blog

Photos: PostCommodity

Witnessing Postcommodity install their earth work "Repellant Fence" (Adrian Wall)

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