Poems from a Declaration Form
Facing a border declaration kiosk at Vancouver International Airport, we are assessed by a set of YES/NO questions:
“Have you visited a farm in the past 10 days? Have you visited China in the past 14 days? What will you offer to this country? Are you carrying more than $10,000 in cash? Most importantly, are you carrying a disease?...”
The declaration form is designed as the most effective way to screen the travelling body. Each incoming human brings either benefits to the country or presents a potential threat. The binary nature of these questions violently flattens identity, agency and humanity, failing to recognise each individual as a person. To start to imagine an absolute borderless world, we start by taking apart a single sheet of the declaration form. As found poetry, five poems are presented, rendering the declaration form as a critique of selective inclusion. Here, a dialogue starts between the form the travelling body, gradually stripping border enforcement to its core.
POEM #8B: The Rulebook of Monetary Instruments
POEM #3: See Definitions on Reverse
PROTECT MONETARY INSTRUMENTS IN COIN, CURRENCY, CHECKS, AND CASHIERS CHECKS AND STOCKS AND BONDS. IF YOU HAVE MONETARY FAILURE TO REPORT YOU ARE CARRYING CIVIL PENALTIES AND/OR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION, ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF TRUTHFUL DECLARATION.
I AM (SEE DEFINITION ON REVERSE) COMMERCIAL MERCHANDISE” ARTICLES OR GOODS THAT ARE NOT CONSIDERED PERSONAL.
POEM #7: General Entry
ENTRY OF DANGEROUS AGRICULTURAL PESTS AND PROHIBITED LIFE (IS) RESTRICTED: SOIL, MEAT, BIRDS, SNAILS, AND OTHER.
POEM #10: Haiku of an Information Processing Machine
A PERSON IS NOT INFORMATION UNLESS UNTIL IT DISPLAYS A VALID CONTROL NUMBER.
CONTROLLED OBSCENE AND TOXIC SUBSTANCES ARE GENERALLY ENTRY.
BORDER(S) AND CULTURE AND LIFE CAN RESULT IN SEIZURE.
THE CONTROL NUMBER FOR THIS COLLECTION IS 1651-0009.
THE ESTIMATED AVERAGE TIME TO COMPLETE THIS APPLICATION IS FOUR MINUTES.
POEM #8A: The Sport of Monetary Instruments
THE TRANSPORTATION OF MONETARY INSTRUMENTS IS LEGAL.
YOUR RESPONSE IS MANDATORY.
HOWEVER, YOU BRING IN TO THE UNITED STATES MORE FOREIGN EQUIVALENT.
A NATION OF LAW ON 105 BORDERS.
on site review 38: borders, lines, breaks and breaches 31
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