![]() The 49 th Parallel Project informed my later work including the 2004 installation found at Gates E33 – E36 of this concourse. Utilizing a variety of media, I tend to focus on the fundamental qualities of mapping: the mysteriousness, inherent biases, cultural authoritativeness, and ability to simultaneously represent and distort reality. The visual work I create primarily incorporates mapping imagery and cultural signage. The demarcated vista and subsequent corridor is a landscape with which I could identify- conceptually and metaphorically.Īs an American, Southerner, and Georgian, my identity is in part defined by abstract lines drawn on a map (the 49 th parallel, the Mason-Dixon line and 35th parallel respectively). In reality, the border is not straight but a series of 912 straight lines. The 49 th parallel stood out not only because it is the world’s longest straight border but also because of the inherent absurdity of diplomats arbitrarily drawing a line on a map and then having the landscape physically altered to fit the map. Traveling in and through the boundary vista rather than across or bisecting it, the project was entitled the 49 th Parallel: Barrier as Corridor and was awarded inclusion in the Cultural Olympiad leading up to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.īoundaries and mapping had long been an interest of mine, if not an obsession. Additionally, I produced a documentary video broadcast on public television which was also shown alongside the exhibitions. Exhibitions took place in museums, galleries, and cultural institutions in both countries. Over the next 3 years I produced a large body of drawings, paintings, and sculpture that addressed mapping concepts and conveyed my experiences along the border. The International Boundary Commission, a joint US/Canadian commission, maintains a 20-foot-wide “vista” or clear-cut along with 912 boundary markers used to accurately demarcate the border.ĭuring my travels of 1,800 miles on bike and 250 miles on foot, I interviewed individuals affected by the border including merchants, customs agents, wildlife researchers, and people whose tribal land is divided by the border and took lots of photographs, videos, and notes. The section of the border along the 49 th parallel runs 1,270 miles. On the summer solstice I resume my expedition, this time on bicycle, and travelled along and adjacent to the border over the next 3 months until I reached the waters of the Pacific- 5 states and 4 provinces later. The week involved trekking across the expansive but strategically frozen Great Roseau Swamp and camping in deep snow with temperatures hitting -5 Fahrenheit. Thirty years ago, on the vernal equinox (March 20, 1992), I set out from the Lake of the Woods on the Manitoba/Minnesota border and hiked 80 miles due west along the 49 th parallel which serves to define a section of the U.S./Canadian border. ![]() Selected works from the 49th Parallel Project in the City as Site exhibition at the Atlanta Airport (Concourse E)
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