Tahmina Maskinyar and Talia Smith
“Introduction to A border can have no boundaries”
Consider the interstitial of the border – the border being the outer edge of something, defining a boundary, existing as the dividing immaterial/material line or location between two areas.
“How nations and governments conceptualise the environment can be explained in part by discourse on the territorialisation of space. Territoriality is a strategy focussed on controlling both people and resources, by controlling and asserting power over space. Control of space is emphasised by the construction of boundaries.”
– Tamara Murdock, CUTTING UP COUNTRY AND COUNTER-MAPPING, 2020. Published on the occasion of NIRIN for the 22nd Biennale of Sydney.
Cumulatively, the submissions by Megan Cope, Bahar Sayed, Samia Sayed, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme engage with the pluralisms experienced, in the cause and effect of claimed, realised, defined and redefined borders.
Megan Cope’s work, Age of Entitlement was first exhibited at Footscray Community Arts Centre and is drawn from the artist's archive. This artwork is the recurrent departure and arrival point for the narrative arc of this iteration of Offsite, a border can have no boundaries. It demonstrates the manifest power of intersubjectivity wherein all boundaries are able to be crossed through the self-validating logic of possession through law that enabled C(r)ook’s voyages and the claiming of land on behalf of the Crown.1
We are after all collectively at the mercy of, and complicit in the fabrication of australia and other states of occupation which have taken it upon themselves to define histories that validate ownership of unceded lands.
The contributions to this issue of Offsite remind us that both the border and the space it cleaves are fabricated, fortified by systems that are entrenched with possessive colonial mentalities. What persists through the creation and presence of these works is defiance of these systems, shaping a path forward through memory, celebration and truth-telling; resting within the physical and metaphysical archive.
- Tahmina Maskinyar
Hello, are you there?
Tahmina Maskinyar is a curator, researcher and writer, born in Kabul and raised near the Djarlgarro Beelier (Canning River) on Whadjuk Noongar Boodja in Australia. Tahmina’s professional experience spans academia, not-for-profits, volunteer boards, and government. She is currently the Curator at West Space. In 2024 she produced the Golden Lion winning exhibition kith and kin by artist Archie Moore and curator Ellie Buttrose for the 60th Venice Biennale. Tahmina’s writing has been published nationally. She is completing a PhD at Monash University focussed on the imperial conditions that shape contemporary art making for Afghan diasporic artists across key sites in Afghanistan.
Talia Smith is an artist and curator from Aotearoa based in Sydney. Smith is of Cook Island, Samoan and Pakeha heritage. She has curated exhibitions for organisations such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Singapore International Photography Festival, IMA, UTS Gallery, MAMA Albury and Ballarat Foto Biennale among others. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Memo, Art New Zealand, artist catalogue essays and books. Smith has completed research residencies in Singapore, Germany and the Nordic region. She currently works as the Coordinator Programming at Blacktown Arts.
