Chapter 15
Border Imaging: Revealing the Gaps between the Reality, the Representation and the Experience of the Border
Katie Davies
Inspecting the British border through a Western prism of political sovereignty, this chapter focuses upon one particular socio-political flashpoint shared by hundreds of civilians and members of the British Armed Forces. Between 2007 and 2011 the small English market town of Wootton Bassett became a site for British repatriation ceremonies. The repatriation ceremonies were initiated and continued by the community in order to pay respect to the British soldiers killed in Afghanistan, by marking the passage and return of their dead bodies to the UK. Through a critique of the short video work The Separation Line, which the author filmed while participating in the ceremonies, a portrait of the small English town, its people, and their way of demarcating a political border through performance is explored. By focusing on these ceremonies, the author will unpack an initial definition of border as a power structure and how video practice can render visible this usually invisible border type. Through the performance of the ceremonies, the town became a symbol of political edict, national identity, and sovereignty. The author explains how the video work transcends these symbolic machinations because those involved (both within and observing the video work) maintain a position of performer and participant. This position as an inclusive act allows the sharing of an experience and is in opposition to the dividing and restructuring mechanisms of the border.
Films discussed in Chapter 15:
The Separation Line. Directed by Katie Davies. UK, 2011.
Films discussed in Chapter 15:
The Separation Line. Directed by Katie Davies. UK, 2011.
Scenes from the film The Separation Line. (Source: Vimeo)
About the author:
Katie Davies is a visual artist and documentary filmmaker. Through video installation, her research and artworks explore the nature of borders, indistinguishable zones and in-between states that are in some way betwixt. Previous video projects include 38th Parallel, working with the UN Armistice Commission and United States Forces in Korea to research and film within the Korean Demilitarized Zone in 2007 and working with The British Home Office, Sheffield City Council and Yorkshire Artspace Society to film Commonwealth, a film observing British Citizenship Ceremonies in 2009. She is currently completing her dissertation, “Border Imaging: Realizing the Rhetoric of Sovereign Order through Artistic Video Practice,” at the University of the West of England, Bristol.
Katie Davies's webpage
Katie Davies is a visual artist and documentary filmmaker. Through video installation, her research and artworks explore the nature of borders, indistinguishable zones and in-between states that are in some way betwixt. Previous video projects include 38th Parallel, working with the UN Armistice Commission and United States Forces in Korea to research and film within the Korean Demilitarized Zone in 2007 and working with The British Home Office, Sheffield City Council and Yorkshire Artspace Society to film Commonwealth, a film observing British Citizenship Ceremonies in 2009. She is currently completing her dissertation, “Border Imaging: Realizing the Rhetoric of Sovereign Order through Artistic Video Practice,” at the University of the West of England, Bristol.
Katie Davies's webpage