“Border Film” —currently in progress— is an encyclopedic document of the infrastructure of border towns and border-crossings, as well as an open-ended meditation on the passage across the political threshold between the United States and Mexico. Produced while traveling repeatedly across the United States-Mexico border, each frame of the film is exposed in both countries to produce a double-image of a landscape suspended between two places. This method of filming—exposing the film twice from points symmetrical on either side of the border—produces a complex wealth of images capturing an array of architectural histories designed to open conversation around foundational issues such as the distribution of wealth and natural resources, transit and trade infrastructure, and immigration. “Border Film” studies how suburban development, population density, commerce and infrastructure intersect with open landscape preserves along the US-Mexico border, while exploring the specific power of an image to render and preserve coincidence between neighboring ecologies.
Sarah Rara’s multi-disciplinary practice— including video, sound, performance, and writing— explores the position of witness within fragile systems. Their work in sound and moving image considers gender, queerness, technology, disability, and illness, in connection with environmental research. Regarding the environment as relational and invested with notions of identity, Sarah Rara’s work considers the socio-political and personal dimensions of sensing technologies. They are a primary organizer of the ongoing project lucky dragons. Their work, solo and in collaboration, has been presented at such institutions as the Whitney Museum of American Art (as part of the 2008 Whitney Biennial), the Hammer Museum, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, London’s Institute for Contemporary Art, PS1 in New York, REDCAT and Human Resources in Los Angeles, MOCA Los Angeles, the 54th Venice Biennale, Documenta 14 in Athens, and the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, among others. Rara is a 2018 recipient of the LACMA Art + Technology fellowship and current artist-in-residence at Bangkok 1899, Bangkok, Thailand. Rara is Assistant Professor of Moving Image at Williams College.
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