Battlegrounds compares land ownership, management and policy with the ownership, management and policies around women’s bodies, addressing some of the conflict and controversy among those who set out to stake claims.
The non-linear narrative is both public and private portrayed through video clips projected onto a faux rock landscape. Some of the videos appear anonymous such as a rock being smashed, close up of drilling and moving across the land from above. Other videos are more intimate such as ultrasound footage of a baby inside the womb, and a macro scan of a woman’s body, revealing only a few inches at a time. Projected onto other rocks, one sees a woman in a white dress, possibly a nightgown, running away or laying exposed in the wilderness through black and white footage that was taken with body cams, similar to those worn by law enforcement. Intermixed with the video footage are stark words defining property, ownership, viability, thrive, private and public.
The installation is accompanied by the sound of two young women singing a slow and sweet version of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land”. The song is mixed with desert nature sounds, a faint heartbeat and startling gun shots that ring out and reverberate throughout the space.
On the wall near the rocks, there a tree branch like a flagpole, with the same white dress worn in the videos, hanging from it like a surrender flag. Projected onto the white dress is a video of a sign reading “Private Property No Trespassing” being shot with bullets until the words become difficult to read.
The piece is provocative and one comes away with a sense of unease, creating more questions than answers.
Photo credit: Amelia Walchli