Disaster Capitalism

The video work Disaster Capitalism (2016) explores the erection of walls and fences along national borders. Focusing on Calais 'great wall' initiative, the voice over, based on a text by Wendy Brown, examines the futile nature of such projects. Rogoff (2000), Wolfe (2012), Vaughan-Williams (2012) and Brown (2010) highlight the importance of the geographical manifestation of borders. Rogoff sees borders as being about lines of division and can also exist as zones that challenge traditional systems of order. Brown observes that geographical borders are often intensified by the building of walls. Here the sovereign state can project an impression of supremacy even if its power base is diminishing. Expanding on these ideas Vaughan-Williams questions our preoccupation with geographically situated border, unfixing them from their moorings to exemplify how they operate as a bio-political device.