Without a Passport

by Nicole Findlay

The looming tussle between Canada and the United States over the implementation of the latter’s new People Access Secure Service (PASS) identity card may force us to take a closer look at how our identity is defined.

In a timely exhibit entitled Without a Passport, Canadian and American artists examine the profound impact state-sanctioned documentation has on our lives.

Maureen Korp, an instructor in the School for Studies in Art and Culture and the College of the Humanities, curated the exhibit, which explores two major themes. The first of these probes the increased appetite for documentation and control sparked by the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The second theme focuses on the human costs incurred by state-sanctioned decisions regarding boundaries and right-of-access.

“All of the situations which form the content of the artists’ work in Without a Passport have arisen from decisions of state made by unknown others: the people who sit at conference tables and decide where are the borders, who may cross, and who may live one place and not another,” Korp writes in the exhibit catalogue.

Although Without a Passport does not specifically address the impending changes to cross-border travel requirements between Canada and the US, the broader implications of who defines our identity has never been more relevant.

Without a Passport is the second of a three-part series of exhibits that focus on contemporary immigration experiences in North America. The exhibit showcases the work of Kinga Araya, Ken Emig, Aaron McKenzie Fraser, Uta Riccius, Eugene Rodriguez and Norman Takeuchi.

Without a Passport will run until Sunday, May 21, 2006 at the Karsh-Masson Gallery on St. Patrick Street.