Shifting Ecotones – 2
2019
electric wire, graphite, pigmented ink print on Hahnemuhle photorag paper
64 x 19.5 in. I 163 x 50 cm. (each)
Shifting Ecotones expands the artist’s meditation on borders by examining lines drawn in and on water, from rivers that form contested national boundaries to borders set over open seas. At such waterscapes claimed by rival nations, territorial assertions merge with conflicts over scarce resources; river water to feed fields and hydropower plants, as well as precious mineral and oil deposits that lie beneath the sea. The absurdity of national efforts to discipline and claim ever-moving bodies of water is alluded to in the work where the landscape, divided into grids by an unknown hand, appears like a muddled puzzle board with a missing piece, constantly being reshaped and reconfigured..
An ‘ecotone’ is the transition zone between two biomes. Biologists have observed that such zones where two diverge landscapes merge foster greater biological diversity than either of the bordering biomes. Amidst grim visions of division and conflict, the term evokes the positive fertile potential of borderscapes, both natural and cultural.
Shifting Ecotone – 2
Left: (The Teesta River) – 2019
Right: (The Danube River) – 2019
Shifting Ecotones 2
Left: (The Imjin River) – 2019
Right: (The Mekong River) – 2019
Shifting Ecotones 2
Left: (The Colorado River) – 2019
Right: (The Nile River) – 2019
