The Distance From Here

The Distance From Here is part of a body of work—Section Yellow—that looks at the visa process, particularly referencing the tragic human consequences of the controlling and policing of national boundaries. The anxiety of following the directions correctly, or worse, of being rejected if a requirement is not met, is palpable in the space Abidi re-creates: the waiting areas of an unnamed embassy in South Asia, perhaps India or Pakistan (whose draconian internal border controls have split families for generations). The queue begins outside, marked by clean yellow lines, where entrepreneurs make a buck from the tedium of waiting by providing notarization services or passport photos. Abidi often uses carefully selected props in her work, and here cheap elasticated neckties illustrate the difference between who the applicants are and who they are required to be in order to pass through the security gates. Once inside, the wait becomes interminable as applicants settle into purgatory. The camera examines details and small gestures that both humanize the individuals and draw attention to their loss of control over their destinies, and their resignation to the ritual humiliations that so many residents of the world are subject to.