Desert of the Real, 2020
59 1/2 x 78 1/2 x 2 in
In Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation: "If once we were able to view the Borges fable in which the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up covering the territory exactly [...] this fable has now come full circle for us, and possesses nothing but the discrete charm of second-order simulacra. [...] It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there, in the deserts which are no longer those of the Empire, but our own: The desert of the real itself.." Xinjiang is the largest administrative region of Northwestern part of China and will be the busiest intersection of the Belt and Road initiaitive (The re-ignition of the silk roads) as it borders 8 nations: Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (9 if you include disputed parts of Kashmir). It has 40% of China's coal, 20% oil and gas and 20% potential Wind energy farms. The Uighur Muslims have attempted a separatist movement and briefly declared in 1949 independence, East Turkestan, with the support of Soviet Union. In 1990s the collapse of Soviet Union resurged separatist independence that was suppressed by Beijing. This was followed by terrorist attacks which was met with a severe crackdown and the current condition of one of the most high tech surveillance panopticons in China. Alongside algorithmic machine learning face recognition apparatus is also collection of DNA and fingerprints for a complete mapping of human movement whereby 'suspicious' behaviour can be discerned and flagged for investigation.