Geografia Negata

Description

Artist Notes

In 2007, I applied for a Jordanian visa from Gaza. It took them more than a year to process my visa. I was already in Europe. I kept the visa with me, and after 19 years, it became more relevant than before. I went back to Jordan after I became a Swedish citizen, and since then, I use my Swedish passport, but still, if I use my Palestinian passport, all geographies became negated and forbidden, suddenly.

Preservation Notes

MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION Geografia Negata is a physical painting, not a digital-native work. The record states the medium as acrylic on paper canvas, at 43 x 30 cm. Construction is therefore understood as acrylic paint applied to a paper-based canvas support. The description records heavy black paint and passages of erasure worked over the image of a visa or security permit; whether that document is a painted representation or a physically adhered original has not been established from the record and is listed for verification below. No varnish, sealant, framing, or mounting method is recorded. No condition assessment has been carried out; nothing here is based on visual inspection of the physical work. CONSERVATION REQUIREMENTS Treat as a paper or paper-canvas support. Such supports are vulnerable to cockling, edge tears, and creasing. Store and display flat, never rolled. Window-mount with acid-free, lignin-free board and hinge with Japanese tissue and starch paste. Do not dry-mount and do not use pressure-sensitive tape of any kind. Handle by the mount or by supported edges rather than by the sheet itself, and keep relative humidity stable to limit expansion and contraction of the paper. Avoid direct sunlight. If physical examination confirms that an original visa, permit, or other paper ephemera is adhered to the surface, the work must be reclassified as a collage incorporating commercial paper stock: such stocks are acidic and were never intended to last, continued deterioration should be expected, a paper conservator should assess the work, encapsulation and protection from light, moisture, and oxygen should be considered, and any lifting edges at collage overlaps must be consolidated before handling or framing. In all cases use UV-filtering glazing. Saturated reds, yellows, and oranges are the passages most at risk of fading. DIGITAL RECORD The original capture was scanned in Sweden as a TIFF master in high, medium, and low resolution variants. Those TIFF masters are held outside this archive; the file uploaded here is a converted derivative. Current asset: JPEG, 849 x 1231 pixels. Maximum reproduction size at 300 DPI is approximately 4.1 inches on the long edge. WARNING: This file is a low-resolution derivative and is inadequate for print reproduction or detailed study. The high-resolution TIFF master must be sourced and uploaded before this work is sold, printed, or reproduced. Sanity accepts TIFF uploads directly, so no conversion is required: upload the high-resolution TIFF master as the primary image and retain the medium and low resolution variants in the gallery field.

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