Postcommodity: A Very Long Line

Opening reception Fri, Sept. 15 6-10 p.m. Artist talk by Postcommodity Sept 16 from 1-2:30 p.m.

A Very Long Line by artist collective Postcommodity is an immersive four-channel video and sound installation comprised of four screens of moving images featuring desert landscapes, framed by the constant presence of a fence.

Filmed along a portion of the border between Douglas, Arizona, USA and Agua Prieta in Sonora, Mexico we see variations of the fence with surrounding neighbourhoods and landscapes. Shot through the border, the fence is a moving blur past viewers on all sides, at varying speeds, amid a jarring, dissonant soundtrack composed by the artists. Portions of the Southwestern landscape, both rural and urban, are visible through the fence, prompting concerns about the border’s impact not only on people, but also on the surrounding ecosystems. Beyond documenting a section of the US-Mexico border, A Very Long Line captures the deep complexity of border-related issues, with its varied pacing and uncomfortable noise, it acts as a metaphor, critiquing and asking questions on colonization and contemporary culture.

Comprised of Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martínez, and Kade L. Twist, arts collective Postcommodity creates work that subverts mainstream social, economic, and political ideologies through an Indigenous lens. A Very Long Line is one part of a broader, transdisciplinary conversation on the complexity of the exchanges, dialogues, and conflicts that occur between, across, and beside the U.S.-Mexico border and the Indigenous communities that have resided in the area before and after the border’s establishment.