Amplify Arts will depart from its usual schedule of regional personal or conceptual shows in its Generator Space this November when it co-hosts a national exhibit of significant social and political advocacy.
Organized along with the School of Integrative Global Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Office of Latino/Latin America Studies (OLLAS) at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, Amplify Arts will open Hostile Terrain 94 Nebraska, Friday, Nov. 5 at its gallery at 1804 Vinton St.
Hostile Terrain 94 Nebraska, an installation about the humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border and how it connects with Nebraska stories and communities, is composed of 3,200 handwritten toe tags that represent migrants who have died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert of Arizona between the mid-1990s and 2019.
A travelling and evolving exhibit, it orignated under the direction of UCLA anthropologist Jason De León, titiled Hostile Terrain 94 (HT94), a participatory art project sponsored and organized by the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP), a non-profit research-art-education- media collective.
Hostile Terrain 94 (HT94 began as a series of witnessing and remembrance workshops, as volunteers inscribed the names of those who lost their lives on toe-tags that bear witness to the humanitarian crisis at the United States border.
Collaborating regional institutions and organizations, such as UNL, OLLAS and now Amplify Arts, received a pre-prepared installation package from UMP complete with wall map, blank toe tags, death information and detailed installation instructions. Additional events and participation around the installation that are appropriate and relevant to local immigration issues are then scheduled.
Hostile Terrain 94 Nebraska is on view from Nov. 5–28, at Generator Space, 1804 Vinton St., Thursdays and Fridays from 1 – 6 p.m. by appointment only. Due to ongoing COVID-19 related public health concerns, viewings of will be limited to small groups of five or fewer. Email peter@amplifyarts.org or register through Eventbrite to schedule a visit. Face masks are required. Follow Hostile Terrain 94 Nebraska at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for additional updates and information.