During a time of global crisis due to COVID-19, we can be reminded of the dangers of xenophobia, particularly towards vulnerable, displaced immigrant communities. Popular media often portrays immigrants seeking a better life as victims or criminals, rarely recognizing them as heroic figures blazing new paths through foreign lands. That’s where the work of artists Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer begins.
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Between These Folded Walls, Utopia, their new series of elaborately staged photographs and videos reveals the noble and courageous aspects of immigrant and first-generation narratives.
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“We started working together 14 years ago at University,” Cooper says. “We did our Master’s thesis together. When you are in grad school, the sky is the limit and you have impossible ideas. Even though we come from different backgrounds, we share similar ideas. Nina came from architecture and I came from classical photography but we found a common ground of creativity: we were exploring the world and could use any medium.”
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After reading an article about the West losing its ability to imagine utopia, the artists became intrigued with the possibility of discovering a space where it might exist today. “How can you create a better world?” Gorfer asks. “We have tried so many times to construct it. When you think utopia you think architecture and political systems — very mind-based creations. We are creating utopia outside ourselves. Whereas you read Eastern philosophy, you look inside and that’s nirvana.”
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