Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space

The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University presents Lines of Control, an exhibition of videos, photographs, prints, paintings, sculptures, and installations by thirty-three international artists and groups that grapple with the seductive simplicity of drawing lines as a substitute for learning how to live with each other.

The exhibition, part of an ongoing project initiated by Green Cardamom in 2005, investigates the historic upheaval of the 1947 partition of India that spawned the nations of Pakistan and later Bangladesh. Expanding on the significance of partition, Lines of Control at the Johnson Museum also addresses other partitioned areas: North and South Korea, Sudan and South Sudan, Israel and Palestine, Ireland and Northern Ireland, Armenia and its diaspora, and indigenous sovereignty in the United States. It explores the products and remainders of partition and borders characteristic of the modern nation-state, and interrogates the continued impact of colonization, the physical and psychic violence of displacement, dilemmas of identity and belonging, and questions of commemoration. Co-organized by Green Cardamom and the Johnson Museum, the exhibition is curated by Hammad Nasar, Iftikhar Dadi, and Ellen Avril, with assistance from Nada Raza.

Artists in the exhibition are Bani Abidi, Francis Alÿs, Sarnath Banerjee, Farida Batool, Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Muhanned Cader, Duncan Campbell, Iftikhar Dadi, DAAR, Anita Dube, Taghreed Elsanhouri, Sophie Ernst, Gauri Gill, Shilpa Gupta, Zarina Hashmi, Emily Jacir, Ahsan Jamal, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Amar Kanwar, Noa Lidor, Mario Mabor, Nalini Malani, Naeem Mohaiemen, Tom Molloy, Rashid Rana, Raqs Media Collective, Jolene Rickard, Hrair Sarkissian, Seher Shah, Surekha, Hajra Waheed, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, and Muhammad Zeeshan.

A two-day symposium on Lines of Control will take place March 3–4, 2012, at the Johnson Museum, with presentations by the curators; Jolene Rickard, Cornell University; Salah Hassan, Cornell University; Sumathi Ramaswamy, Duke University; Aamir Mufti, UCLA; Sandhini Poddar, Guggenheim Museum; Saloni Mathur, UCLA; and artists Amar Kanwar, Naeem Mohaiemen, Seher Shah, and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. Registration is free but required by e-mailing eas8@cornell.edu.

Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space, edited by Dadi and Nasar with contributions by the curators, Salah Hassan, Naeem Mohaiemen, Aamir Mufti, Sumathi Ramaswamy, Raqs Media Collective, Jolene Rickard, Irit Rogoff, Murtaza Vali, Nicole Wolf, and Hyejong Yoo, is available from the Johnson Museum (March 2012, 240 pgs., softcover, 30 USD).

Major funding for the exhibition, catalogue, and accompanying programs is provided by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the Jarett F. and Younghee Kim-Wait Fund for Contemporary Islamic and Middle Eastern Arts, the Jarett F. and Younghee Kim-Wait Fund for Korean Arts, Gandhara-Art, the Mondriaan Fund, and Ali and Amna Naqvi. Additional support was provided by Cornell University's Institute for Comparative Modernities; College of Architecture, Art, and Planning; Minority, Indigenous, and Third World Studies Research Group; Department of Art; Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies; Department of History of Art; Cornell Cinema; and the South Asia Program. ArtAsiaPacific is the exclusive media partner for Lines of Control.

The exhibition will travel to the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Fall 2013.

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University The Johnson Museum has a permanent collection of over 35,000 works of art from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. The museum building was designed by I. M. Pei and opened in 1973, funded by Cornell alumnus Herbert F. Johnson, late president and chairman of S C Johnson.

Green Cardamom, London Green Cardamom is a visual arts organization that presents a view of the international centered on the Indian Ocean. It operates an innovative hybrid model, working on a not-for-profit basis to develop curatorial projects, while running a commercial gallery program as its principal means of funding. Green Cardamom's projects are developed through exhibitions, publications, and symposia in partnership with international museums and universities, with critical input from an expanding network of scholars and curators.

Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space

Künstler: Bani Abidi, Francis Alÿs, Sarnath Banerjee, Farida Batool, Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Muhanned Cader, Duncan Campbell, Iftikhar Dadi, Decolonizing Architecture , Anita Dube, Taghreed Elsanhouri, Sophie Ernst, Gauri Gill, Shilpa Gupta, Zarina Hashmi, Emily Jacir, Ahsan Jamal, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Amar Kanwar, Noa Lidor, Mario Mabor, Nalini Malani, Naeem Mohaiemen, Tom Molloy, Rashid Rana, Raqs Media Collective, Jolene Rickard, Hrair Sarkissian, Seher Shah, Surekha , Hajra Waheed, Young-Hae Chang HEAVY INDUSTRIES, Muhammad Zeeshan