The Internal Frontier Series consists of a series of images of water cut from chest x-rays. The first group consists of 3 images, each measuring 43cm x 35,5 cm (standard x-ray size). During the initial unveiling of the piece at the Théâtre le Verso in Saint-Étienne, France, each image was displayed separately, below eye-level, in a vertically-positioned medical light box. The works can also be displayed directly on the wall or in a floating frame. Each piece in the series can be shown individually or as part of a larger (3 x 3 x-rays) mural.
The pieces juxtapose the chest x-rays of immigrants currently living in France with cut-out images of water from around the world. The base images used were sourced online, then digitally manipulated/redrawn to form part of a larger mural. Each image was laser cut from a portion of this vector graphic. The abstract works depict different textures of water; puddles, waves, splashes, rapids, eddies, etc.
Non-EU immigrants to France seeking long-term residency permits are required to obtain chest x-rays in order to get cleared for processing. Every day, the government asserts its right to peer into and catalogue the innermost parts of our bodies, in order to determine who gets to stay within its’ borders and who is unfit to remain. This series builds on two prior hand-cut bodies of work in x-rays (Frontière Interne I and Frontière Interne II), however this time laser cutting was used to achieve a finer degree of detail. Also, this is the first time that the images are interlinked, forming a mural consisting of 9 x-rays or more, depending on the scale of magnification of the vector base image, before incision.
This work is dedicated to Alan Kurdi, Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, Angie Valeria Ramírez, and to the countless people around the world who have passed away while attempting to cross bodies of water between their homelands and their destinations.
