May 25, 2017
by Loney Abrams
You may recognize Postcommodity from the collective’s contribution to the Whitney Biennial: a dizzying four-channel video sped up and slowed down in conjunction with sound, tracing the fences that line the US-Mexico border. The installation, titled A Very Long Line, demonstrates the "dehumanizing and polarizing constructs of nationalism and globalization through which borders and trade policies have been fabricated.” This isn’t the first time the multidisciplinary collective has tackled the border; Repellent Fence (2015), an ephemeral land-art installation comprised of 26 enlarged replicas of an ineffective bird-repellent balloon, hovered 50 feet above a two-mile long stretch of land connecting the US and Mexico. The colors and graphics on the balloons coincidently mimic those used by indigenous peoples of the Americas, rendering the installation a symbolic gesture “demonstrating the interconnectedness of the Western Hemisphere by recognizing the land, indigenous peoples, history, relationships, movement, and communication."