Originally published as at the catalogue essay for Greg Shaw: Grey-Zones, Artillery Gallery, Harare, 2023.

Introduction

This body of work began as an interrogation of the national boundary of Zimbabwe; a questioning of The Border, and borders in general, markers of the limits of political jurisdiction of the sovereign state and its cultural, socio-economic and socio-political conditions. As work progressed, “border” emerged less as a boundary or containing/excluding structure, but as a signifier of the state, insofar as it represented the structures (both physical and ideological) according to which conditions are manifest, becoming mediator or interface between state and citizen.

Both the structures and the relationships that evolve around this border are in a constant state of flux and negotiation, from which the title Grey-Zones emerged. Three interconnected themes became apparent; the nature of the structure itself, the implications and conditions wherein the border acts as mediator between the individual and state, and the ramifications of these conditions at an individual level – what it is to stand (metaphorically) on one side of a structure or another, or to occupy a position of liminality.

Lines in Space

Whilst much of the work employs media commonly associated with borders and boundaries, the idea of “border” should not be reduced to a structure or physical boundary, nor be seen to simply direct a social or cultural response. George Simmel (in Schimanski 2021) argues that the boundary is not a “spatial fact” with sociological consequences, but rather the opposite.

Whilst the boundary may be understood as the manifestation of cultural, sociological or psychological phenomenon and might be clarified by being seen as a line in space, reducing it to such undermines the dynamic aspect of the border, and the temporal aspects of meeting and dividing. We understand the border as emerging through the consequence of human agency, and more importantly, our efforts to clarify and delimit the border contradict the fact that borders exist in a constant state of flux, are temporal and are in a process of being conditioned by human agency.

Carving Lines (2021) refers primarily to the “line in space”, the marking and codifying of the border; an acknowledgement of the violence of the action. The materials and form refer to historical aspects of the process. Images drawn from Google Earth speak to the all-seeing, elevated viewpoint that emerged with the colonial gaze and the removal of that eye from the place of division, as well as the present structure that identifies the porous and assaulted division between Zimbabwe and South Africa, bringing into focus the nature of state boundaries in general.

Whereas the work above calls the physical attributes into question, Lines in Space (2021) interrogates the porosity of the boundary, questioning both the crosser and those who would construct the barrier. The dismantling of the borderline and the literal opening of the “barrier” allows the spectator to pass through the work, interrogating the process of “crossing”. The boundary disintegrates and re-forms according to the spectator’s position, remaining in memory as both a visible line and as loss of form.

The process of crossing is elucidated…

Mediator and Interface

Within later works, the notion of the state as authority develops, with concepts proceeding from the writing of Houtum and Wolfe (Schimanski and Wolfe, 2019:131), that the border represents an act of waiting.

Houtum and Wolfe explicate this concept through analysis of Kafka’s Before the Law, as well as Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians.

This “citizening” is considered on an individual level within Passenger I and II (2023). Here, the artist returns to figuration, with images of prostrate women, face upwards disintegrating and reforming amidst chaotic marks.

Before the Law (2021) brings the spectator face to face with a physical structure. Access within or through is denied and concepts of inclusion/exclusion become apparent.

A similar view of the authoritarian state, one of enforced homogeneity, over-seeing control, artificial order, separation and division is considered in War Table.

Within the Self-ID series, and Outsider series, Shaw turns the focus inwards, again turning to figuration through digital media and collage to explore concepts of social order.

Individual Concerns

Nine Buckets (2021) responds more closely to the human element within these relationships. The objects explore the nature of resources, access, administration and control, considering the basic needs and rights of the individual in direct relation to the structures of the state.

The means in which authority is enforced is brought into focus within Fences (2021), in particular, the relationship between individual and state and the wider apparatus, including the humanity intertwined within this matrix.

Objects we often associate with control, such as plexiglass riot shields, batons or water cannons, carry a sense of a manufactured, industrial feel, and by implication seem sanctioned by some authoritarian structure.

In this regard, we see the individual within the structure, not the collective aspect of state organisation. This is a questioning of the balance between us and you (pl), becoming me and (vs. against?) you (s), an interrogation of the line that demarcates an established set of behaviour and responses at an individual level.

Conclusion

The investigations into borders in the work above recognise the complexity of the relationship between individual and state and the dynamic, mutable conditions of existence. The work considers the nature of the boundaries, the transformation of these through their crossing, and the manner in which they include and exclude on both a collective and individual level.

Through media, metaphorical meaning is explored, through the perspectives of both the individual and the state. What emerges is an enquiry into aspects of borders, their origin and the manner in which they condition contemporary existence.

Greg Shaw
Harare, July 2023.