America ReFramed

Through the Repellent Fence

By Sam Wainwright Douglas. A co-production of Big Beard Films and Vision Maker Media.

THROUGH THE REPELLENT FENCE follows the creation of a two-mile long ephemeral art installation by three Native American artists: Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martínez, and Kade L. Twist collectively known as Postcommodity. The film documents their collaboration as they construct 'Repellent Fence,' a metaphorical "stitching" together the United States and Mexico. Their work puts "land art in a tribal context,” to illuminate a shared Indigenous world-view and the legacy that connects the original people to their land. 

Viewers are provided an intimate glimpse into the process behind creating the ambitious yet temporary artwork. With the volunteer help of communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, 'Repellent Fence' was installed with a series of twenty-eight enormous inflatable yellow-gold spheres. Emblazoned with an insignia known as the open eye - a symbol that has existed in Indigenous cultures of the Americas for thousands of years - the spheres extended north and south of the border a mile in each direction. The artist collective was featured in the 2017 Whitney Museum Biennale.