0000100011
NEW WORLD ORDER
textile
alexander levy gallery
Berlin
2020
For the work 0000100011 - New World Order the outlines of
the territorial borders from all countries of our earth are assembled into a camouflage pattern and printed onto textile. As a result, the geographical
locations as we know them, as well as the sizes of the individual countries is skewed: in this rearranged pattern
Australia directly borders Pakistan and Uganda is scaled larger than the United States. On several levels, the outlines of the world‘s political borders are
superimposed in such a way that they overlap and cross each other, creating fictitious new borders and territories, making old
state borders unrecognizable. The work takes the long-held act of drawing borders to the point of absurdity and charges it with a further dynamic by
referring to the contemporary production of camouflage patterns, which for this work have been applied through the use of
computers. What emerges is the camouflaged pattern of a world army, the clothing of a military force that will never exist and which, deprived of its original task -
the defense of a state and its interests against external threats - claims an existence
devoid of meaning. The artwork deals with repressive border politics and can be understood as an
artistic reflection on the topics of annexations, asylum, migration and the understanding of territorial integrity. It is intended to also enable a way of
looking at borders as places of generative struggles, where alternative subjectivities and agencies can be formed and
shaped.
For the work 0000100011 Ekaterina Burlyga has bleached military
uniforms until their patterns dissolved. Thus, their originally intended function as disguise got removed. The word camouflage comes from the French
language and relates to the art of concealment, deception and misdirection. Camouflage patterns are made of a variety of
colors and shapes, which are suitable to visually dissolve the contours of
an object or person against a background, therefore
creating a deception. Because camouflage clothing is supposed to cause an optical fusion with the environment, the patterns differ depending on the intended place of use. Since
most nations have their own standardized military clothing, such patterns can often be
assigned to specific militaries or paramilitary organizations, making it quite possible for troops to be recognized
and identified solely through their camouflage pattern. Hence, camouflage comes to function as form of identifier or nationality, in spite of its’ intended
disguising purpose. In the artwork, the clothing is therefore not only stripped of camouflage dye but its national connection
has a been blurred too. For the bleaching process itself the artist has used chlorine. The name of the element comes from the ancient Greek word chlōrós,
which means ‚pale green’. This name was chosen after the typical yellow-green color of chlorine gas, which was often used as a chemical weapon in times of war.
In its desaturated color, a green-yellow hue, the military clothing takes on a color similar to that of chlorine
gas.