"Control the Bor(D)ers"

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | "Control the Bor(D)ers" (2014-ongoing) is the latest in a series of durational actions that Rojas conceived in collaboration with artist Michael Asbill around their shared interest in trees as archives and witnesses in space and time symbiotic to human existence. Working specifically within the framework of the destruction of the North American ash forest by the Emerald Ash Borer—an invasive species—the project connects the rhetoric of invasion used both for pests and migrant communities to address xenophobia as a process of dehumanization. Central to the project are pallets that Rojas and Asbill have been making from EAB-transformed ash wood, highlighting the visually arresting patterns left behind by the borer larvae and foregrounding the pallet as a sculptural signifier of the globalized trade that facilitates the transport of non-native species.

First performed in 2021 at the Judson Memorial Church, in New York, by Rojas and migrant dancers, "Control the Bor(D)ers" finds its latest interpretation through the artist’s improvisational collaboration with Bennington students and visiting Bennington music faculty Kyoko Kitamura during his 2023 Usdan Gallery exhibition and Fellowship at the Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA). For this new addition to the series, Rojas worked closely with students through a sequence of workshops centered around research and process, guiding them through the creation of their own site-specific extensions of ideas in his Usdan exhibition. Similarly, Rojas worked closely with Kitamura to guide music students to connect to the work, using the larvae patterns as prompts for musical scores. Documentation of the performance will join Rojas’s exhibition as it travels to its next venue.

Control the Bor(D)ers performers: Surabhee Arjunwadkar; Bowman; Diana Chipak; Vic Coronel; Alexa Nikol Curran; Gisele Dierks; Paige Draiss; Samuel DuPont; Asa Giles; Lucas Guin; Hazel Hornick-Wu; Sincere Jones; Milo Lis; Juan Lopez; Xiao Ma; Ximena Maldonado Mayans; Marcel Santiago Marcelino; Valeria Sanchez; and Jenna Taus