Karl Ketamo: The Landscape of Authority
The political geographer David Newman describes the role of contemporary boundaries as: “In a variety of formats and intensities, boundaries continue to demarcate the territories within which we are compartmentalized, determine with whom we interact and affiliate, and the extent to which we are free to move from one space to another”.(1) According to the social scientist Michael Billig, national identity is produced as a result of the accretions of ‘small-scale, mundane processes’.(2)
Landscapes often play a role as subjects of representations that are used to enhance the narrative of national identity. The Landscape of Authority presents landscape representations found from several official passports. The images display a contradictory view given the nature of the object and its function for control of population movement according to power structures and politics between nations.
The video work made for the same project, Act of Walking consist of montaged films made around the main road leading to the asylum center of Ter Apel in Groningen, Netherlands and visitors for a well-known Dutch national park celebrated for its visual resembles of the African Sahara.
1 A Companion to Political Geography. Chapter 9. Boundaries, David Newman (2003:138, Blackwell Publishers)
2 Banal Nationalism (Theory, Culture and Society), Michael Billig (1995, p.6 London: Sage Publications)
Artist Book / Printed works 2016
Artsist website http://www.karlketamo.com
