shows this spring
From New York City, Daniel Georges and Rumi Tsuda in conjunction with the non-profit arts organization, Alma On Dobbin, have called more than 250 artists from around the world to create Passport/ID documents for a traveling exhibition.
The lives of people around the world are shaped by the legitimacy or illegitimacy of their status in the groups and institutions with whom they interact. As globalization proceeds and local bonds are eroded, identification documentation such as passports, credit cards, drivers' licenses and calling cards has become the physical medium in which the political, commercial, cultural and ultimately the spiritual disposition of the individual are negotiated. As new forms and criteria of identification are produced even the nature of identity is changed.
For “Your Documents Please,” more than 250 international artists living in 26 countries have engaged this medium directly. The organizers asked participants to make a small artwork (the size of a conventional passport or less) that functions visually or conceptually as if it were an identification document. As the show travels, new documents by local artists are also being added. The resulting international traveling exhibition reflects a contemporary spectrum of issues of identity and the impact of its documentation.
In keeping with the focus, a letter size paper certificate with head photo of the artist, name, place of residence, country of origin as well as a photo of one of their previous art pieces and explanatory notes about the document they have made for the show is presented in a vinyl sleeve with each artwork in place of a conventional label.