{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O239645"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O239645/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009BX6075/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009BX6075/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009BX6075","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Esther Parada","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O239645/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O239645","accessionNumber":"E.984:3-2008","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"Define/Defy the Frame (-an unfolding exhibition)","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"These prints are part of what Parada calls an ‘unfolding exhibition’ designed to disrupt the conventional format of museum exhibitions and publications. They combine archival media images of US military officers training the Nicaraguan National Guard with photographs showing the lives of two Nicaraguan women, Maria Medina Pavon and Adriana Angel. Parada invites the viewer ‘to question the hierarchy of US media attention [and] make blatant or explicit the manipulation which is an inevitable part of representation’.","physicalDescription":"This is one of the two Litho-prints contained in the folder (see: Mus.No. E.984:1-2008).\r\nThe prints are like an accordion fold 'book' in two sections. Both together can also be viewed as a poster by unfolding the two prints and placing them side by side. The left print is the predominately black and white one (Mus. No. E.984:2), the right print (this Mus. No, E-984:3) is the coloured one.\r\nBoth prints pick up the content of the photo-collages of the folder, where they are contained in (see: Mus. No. E.984:1).\r\nThis coloured folded print contains the pictures of the right extension of the folder (pictures from the life of two Nicaraguan women, Maria Medina Pavon and Adriana Angel) and is overlapped by one single black and white image extruded into pixels. This pixelated image shows the training of the Nicaraguan National Guard by U.S. officers in Ocotal, Nicaragua.\r\nThe folded print contains 4 folds and thus 5 pages.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Parada, Esther","id":"A28008"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"offset lithography","id":"AAT192900"},{"text":"photography","id":"AAT54225"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Photography printed via Offset Lithography on 80 lb. gloss Productolith paper","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2009BX6075"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"100","id":"THES49934"},"free":"","case":"CA2","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"USA","id":"x29333"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1990","earliest":"1990-01-01","latest":"1990-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the American Friends of the V&A through the generosity of Patric Prince","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"97.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"27.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"The prints and the folder were produced on the occasion of an exhibition organised by Nancy Gonchar for the University Art Museum of the State University of New York at Binghamton.","historicalContext":"Define/Defy the Frame attempts to dislocate a conventional reading of museum exhibition and publication formats. The \"catalogue\" in this case is not documentation, but rather another exhibition venue. It could be described as a folding book or poster. The artist Esther Parada calls it an \"unfolding exhibition\". In using this experimental form she seeks to open up a dialogue between different elements of the work - such as the poster and the folder - as well as between the artist and viewer.\r\nThe work contained in this folder posits an historical framework dominated by the establishment and proliferation of United States military power throughout the hemisphere. This hierarchical relationship is represented visually through the expansion of a single image - the training of the Nicaraguan National Guard by U.S. officers in Ocotal, Nicaragua, 1927 - as a kind of pixel matrix (cit: taken from text within folder).","briefDescription":"Lithographic print, one of two contained in a lithographic folio entitled 'Define/Defy the Frame', by Ester Parada, 1990.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Pavon, Maria Medina","id":"N10316"},{"text":"Angel","id":"N10317"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"Iran-Contra affair","id":"V733"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Cut Out: A Feminist History of Photo Collage, Montage and Assemblage (T&H, V&A publishing, spring 2026)\r\n\r\nAmerican artist Esther Parada sees this work as an experimental ‘unfolding exhibition’, attempting an open dialogue with the viewer. In a series of lithographic prints, Parada combines found images from the US Marine Corps historical archives with material from The New York Times, which she combines with her own photographs taken in Nicaragua. The artist has said of this work: ‘In juxtaposing the words and images of North American authority – military officers, past and present, and US political figures – with the words and pictures of two Nicaraguan families, I ask the viewer to question the hierarchy of US media attention. By interweaving multiple versions of the same image, I intend to make blatant or explicit the manipulation which is an inevitable part of representation.’","date":{"text":"03/12/2025","earliest":"2025-12-03","latest":"2025-12-03"}}],"partNumbers":["E.984:3-2008"],"accessionNumberNum":"984","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":2008,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-09","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-08","availableToBook":false}}