terra nullius

2024

Review: Emptiness is the Mirage of the New Frontier in ann haeyoung’s Exhibition terra nullius 🔗
Essay: there is no terra nullius 🔗

Early during Western colonial times, the rhetorical assertion of terra nullius was used to erase claims to the land by its existing inhabitants. Terra nullius creates a conceptual void in the colonial imagination, and transforms land that is settled and cultivated to land that is empty, underutilized, and awaiting “civilized” development. It is a term that has distinguished invasion from settlement.

Terra nullius, and the related concept of frontier ideology, are central to Western notions of progress. The frontier and empty lands beyond it are not physical places. They are the promise of endless extraction of resources and infinite expansion of markets.

In my exhibition for the Roswell Museum, I examined the myth of terra nullius through three locations: the mine, the radio telescope, and the optical telescope.

 

 

8 hours and 50 minutes of work, resulting in a 9cm cube
2024

8 hours and 50 minutes of work, resulting in a 9cm cube is made from the accumulated dust of a device for crushing ore, a kinetic sculpture that was a part of ann haeyoung’s show at the Roswell Museum, terra nullius.

The form of a device for crushing ore is based on an early mining device used for crushing rocks to extract minerals, while the bone-like arm alludes to the human labor and hardship that underlies the mining industry.

In mining, the "useless" dust is separated from the "valuable" dust (such as gold or silver). In this case, the device's work is inherently "useless”–it is crushing rocks for the sake of crushing rocks. The act of crushing is the product, and the dust produced is a record of its labor.

Dust marks time in its accumulation. Dust also holds information about the material and processes that created it. The collected dust is not only particulate matter. It is a record of the device's approximately 8 hours and 50 minutes of work.