In 1939, and again in 1964, Queens, New York hosted the World’s Fair, an international exhibition where countries came together to show off their achievements in technology and industry. In September, the borough will host another event: The world is unfair.
This is the name of a new public project sponsored by Creative Time by the New Red Order (NRO) collective. With artwork, film screenings and musical performances, the event will mimic elaborate historical re-enactments, but with a different agenda: to expose, in the words of the band, the United States as a “continuing occupation of stolen Indigenous lands.”
Founded by artists Adam and Zack Khalil (who are both Ojibway, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians) and Jackson Polys (Tlingit), New Red Order identifies itself as a “public secret society made up of networks of informants and accomplices dedicated to rechanneling desires for nativehood toward the expansion of future natives.” It might be a mouthful, but the band’s core message is ostensibly simple: “Give it back.”
New Red Order. Courtesy of the artists.
For NRO, the phrase is a call to action: return all land to the people who were forcibly displaced from it by settlers. Through its extensive ongoing research project, also called give it back— the group investigates and promotes concrete cases where this exchange has voluntarily taken place.
“All of New Red Order’s work is about harnessing people’s desire for autochthony – to co-opt it, to own it, to embrace it,” said Creative Time curator Diya Vij, who organizes The world is unfair with the collective. NRO’s goal, she continued, is to “take that desire and turn it into a pathway for [transforming] settlers as accomplices to the return of all indigenous land and life.
“They say ‘give it back’ instead of ‘give it back’ because it’s something we can all do. It is a donation and not a deduction. It’s being in community together,” Vij added.
Among other attractions, The world is unfair will include an installation of hundreds of tribal flags, signs indicating the site’s proximity to the current locations of Lenape diasporic communities, and a large-scale video sculpture titled Fort Freedumb— wrapped in various forms of fences. At the center of the fair will be Dexter and Sinister (2023), an animatronic talking tree and a beaver discussing land issues and the concept of private property.
An illustrative map for the upcoming New Red Order The world is unfair project. Courtesy of NRO and Creative Time.
That NRO is interested in World Expos makes sense. With its exhibits, the United States has a disturbing history of exploiting indigenous communities and other minorities to support its own imperialist ideologies. The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, for example, prohibited people of color from participating in the central section of the event titled “White City.” The 1904 St. Louis iteration exhibited Filipinos and Native Americans to demonstrate “uncivilized” cultures.
“At a time when the future seems bleak or non-existent, making it offers a bright path, a way for us to survive an apocalypse together,” NRO said in a joint statement. “The landmass here is huge. And its ecological capacity to sustain life is immense if we take care of these resources properly. You can have a seat. But first: give it back.
Follow Artnet News on Facebook:
Want to stay one step ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to receive breaking news, revealing interviews and incisive reviews that move the conversation forward.
