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Susan Harbage Page
Objects from the Borderlands:
Anti-Archive
from the U.S.–Mexico Border
Project 2007–2014
(Curated by Manuela De Leonardis)
Presentation of the project and reception with
the Artist
Friday, October 24, 6:30pm, 2014
In 2007, the American artist Susan Harbage Page
began to create her “Anti-Archive,” Objects from the Borderlands:Anti-Archive
from the U.S.–Mexico Border Project. A collection of objects found
along the border between the United State and Mexico that witness a silent immigration,
that no one wants to see.
“I began this work on the border after I heard
a radio broadcast on NPR (National Public Radio),” Susan Harbage Page
commented, “They quoted a statistic that stuck wih me, 20% more women and
children than men when crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. I wanted to go to see
this with my own eyes. Also because, in the state in which I live, North
Carolina, the economy is based on agriculture, which is supported by the labor
of Latin-Americans. Most of them come from Mexico. I began to travel yearly to
the border in Texas where I walk, ride bikes and canoe) to photograph the
objects that tell the story of a clandestine life and most importantly, the
risks to which they are exposed when they come into the United States, but I didn’t
want to photograph people in the documentary tradition. For me, to show these
objects as reliquaries is more powerful, becuase they each have a narrative
attached without a beginning or an end. This work for me is a moral
obbligation.”
In seven years “I have photographed over 500
different objects, toothbrush, argyle sock, wallet, shoes, a bra. One time I
found a man’s shirt and it was folded, I saved in the archive as it was
orginally folded. I always think about who this shirt belonged to, who washed
it, who ironed it, who folded it. His mother, his wife, or perhaps he folded it
for himself. These details are very important for me.”
Objects from the Borderlands: Anti-Archive from
the U.S. Mexico Border Project, is a work in progress that transforms socio-political issues in an
intervention both esthetic, archeaological and archival: in 2014 this project
was awarded the Carolina Women’s Center Faculty Award to publish an limited
edition artist’s book.
Susan Harbage Page (Greenville, Ohio, 1959, lives in
Chapel Hill, North Carolina) is an Assistant Professor at the Department of
Women's and Gender Studies and Professor in Global Studies at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His education includes a Master of Fine Arts
with a major in photography at the San Francisco Art Institute (2004); a
Bachelor and Master of Music with a major in Saxophone at the Michigan State
University (1981) and the certificate of proficiency in Italian at the
University for Foreigners of Perugia (1984). Fieldwork is an important part of
his artistic practice. Has been awarded four international residencies for the
field research for the exploration of women's communities: the Fulbright Travel
Grant (1992) to study the sacred objects and the community of cloistered nuns
at the Monastery of St. Mary Magdalene in Spello; North Carolina to Israel
Fellowship (1996) awarded by the North Carolina Arts Council to live with a
group of Bedouin women who ran a weaving cooperative; Camargo Foundation
Fellowship (2002) in Cassis (France) where he photographed the remains of
religion and Artist Residency at the McColl Center for Visual Art, Charlotte,
North Carolina (2004) where he developed Palimpsest, a visual exploration of
women's stories written on their bodies.
It 'also three times winner of the North
Carolina Arts Council Fellowship (2000, 2004 and 2010) for the project US /
Mexico Border Project: archives and photographs of objects found on the banks
of the Rio Grande.
In 2013 he participated in the work Nipple
Plates (2003) on the book CAKE. The culture of dessert between traditional Arab
and West / The dessert cultures between Arabic and Western traditions (Postcart
Editions), a non-profit project in support of Bait al Karama Women Centre,
before Cooking School PA.
Among the recent exhibitions: 2014 - Lace,
Hagedorn Foundation Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia (staff); The Great Illusion / The
great illusion, Gallery of Art, Temple University, Rome; 2013 - Susan Harbage
Page. The tearing of the story, conversation with lace, House of Memory and
History, Rome (staff); Light Sensitive: Photographic Works from North Carolina
Collections, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina;
2012 - Cum Grano Salis, Kyo Art Gallery, Viterbo, Italy (personal); Zone of
Contention, Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greensboro, North Carolina; Humanizing
the Border.
Weblinks:Susan
Harbage Page: U.S.–Mexico Border Project ;http://susanharbagepage.blogspot.com/p/us-mexico-border.html;Susan Harbage Page TEDx
Charlotte;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osAMYox10NU;Susan Harbage Page – Duke
Franklin Center;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIYJq1GrTpA;Residues of
Border Control – Southern Spaces JournalEmory;http://www.southernspaces.org/2011/residues-border-control
Info:
Susan Harbage Page. Objects from the BorderlandsAnti-Archive
from the U.S. Mexico Border Project 2007-2014
Presentation of the project and reception with
the Artist
Curated by Manuela De Leonardis
Friday, October 24, 6:30pm, 2014
Via Braccio da Montone 93 00176
Roma
Tel. 3342906204
Con il Patrocinio di:
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; North Carolina Council