PROVENANCE PB

Fiction. Graphic Novel. PROVENANCE is a graphic novel by visual artist Amy Ball made after the fact of her solo exhibition powers at Kunstverein Gottingen (January 14-February 25, 2018). PROVENANCE raises questions regarding the accountability of the artist after the work is complete, and the individual after their voice is spoken, by following the path of a trader-of-goods in a not-so-distant future as they physically create connections through their physical moving of goods, forging connections between seemingly opposing worlds. Ball attempts to create a contemporary case of provenance: tracing the origin of objects through her neutral protagonist as they move seamlessly between worlds that may otherwise never collide. As with her exhibition powers, Ball is interested in concepts of new communities formed in response to an uncertain future; not creating a utopian world or a post-apocalyptic one, but instead posing slight examples or examining reactionary communities in response to a future she chooses to leave unnamed. In PROVENANCE, we see two opposing reactionary communities and the midway point between--the airport, where everything seems to function as usual, with the character Lim being the thread which ties them together through the goods they are trading. Why these communities exist is never addressed, but the fact that they do exist suggests something.