{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O239647"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O239647/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009BX6074/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009BX6074/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009BX6074","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Esther Parada","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009BX6073","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Esther Parada","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009BX6071","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Esther Parada","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009BX6053","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Esther Parada","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009BX6052","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Esther Parada","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O239647/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O239647","accessionNumber":"E.984:1-2008","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"Define/Defy the Frame (an unfolding exhibition)","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Parada sees this work as \"an unfolding exhibition\" which can be experienced as a sequential process by the viewer as they open and examine the contents of the folder.  The artist has said of this work \"In juxtaposing the words and images of North American authority - military officers, past and present, and U.S. political figures - with the words and pictures of two Nicaraguan families, I ask the viewer to question the hierarchy of U.S. 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.\" (Patric Prince Archive, V&A, AAD/2009/19).\r\nThe artist scanned images she found in the U.S. Marine Corps historical archives and The New York Times.  She also digitized 35mm slides of photographs she took in Nicaragua turning them into black and white images using different forms of software, such as SuperPaint, Digital Darkroom or ImageStudio.  The artist aimed at variation in format, resolution, tonality and focus, in order to make her own intervention into the digital process apparent.","physicalDescription":"Paper folder in black and white, containing two lithographic prints (V&A: E. 984:2-2008 and E.984:3-2008).\r\nIn closed state the folder shows on the front the title of the object: 'Define/Defy The Frame - An Unfolding Exhibition'. And on the back: 'By Esther Parada, published by the University Art Museum, State University of New York at Binghamton, as part of the Current Events series.'\r\nThe folder unfolds itself, four nearly equally sized parts or flaps can be flipped away, one to the top, one to the right, one to the bottom and one to the left. The left and right extensions contain pictorial information, photo-collages, and the upper and bottom part along with the centre piece form one plane, which contains written information about the project and comments on the content of the photo-collages.\r\nThe photo-collage on the left side flap contains North American Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North with one of his slides at the Iran-Contra hearing (taken by Paul Hosefros, chief photographer for The New York Times in Washington D.C. and printed on page 4 of The Times, July 17, 1987). Other elements in the collage are pictures of the training of the Nicaraguan National Guard by U.S. officers in Ocotal, Nicaragua, 1927. Another picture shows the closing ceremony at the school of the Americas in Panama (photo taken by James LeMoyne, printed in The New York Times, September 24, 1984, p. 8).\r\nThe photo collage on the right side flap shows photos from the life of the two Nicaraguan women Adriana Angel and her friend Maria Medina Pavon. On a bigger picture in the middle Maria Medina Pavon holds up her family photograph. On another photograph she leans into the shadows of her one-room cinderblock home, exposing the idyllic image on her T-shirt. On another photograph she sits under an AMNLAE (the Nicaraguan women's association) poster, and yet under another photograph Adriana's daughter Maranta with Maria's son Juan Carlos are wearing the Monimbo masks.","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"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Black and white offset lithography print on 8 pt. Carolia Cover C2S paper","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2009BX6074","2009BX6073","2009BX6071","2009BX6053","2009BX6052"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"MB6R","shelf":"PAT","box":"1"}],"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":"28","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"closed folder (folded)","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"22","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"closed folder (folded)","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"84","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"opened folder (unfolded)","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"56.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"opened folder (unfolded)","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Define/Defy The Frame - An Unfolding Exhibition'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"On front of closed folder"},{"content":"'By Esther Parada, published by the University Art Museum, State University of New York at Binghamton, as part of the Current Events series.'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"On back of closed folder"}],"objectHistory":"This folder was 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 a 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 folio, containing 2 lithographic prints, 'Define/Defy the Frame', by Ester Parada, 1990.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"Attribution note: The artist used a Macintosh II computer and a Canon Colour Laser Copier 500.  \"In preparing the digital information for offset lithography reproduction, black and white film was output from disk by Anzographics, Chicago, while color [sic] film separations were made by IPP Lithocolor, Chicago. Offset lithography was by Rider Dickerson, Inc. Chicago, on 80 lb gloss Productolith text for the 4-color poster and 8 pt Carolina Cover C2S for the black and white folder\" (Patric Prince Archive, V&A, AAD/2009/19).","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"North, Oliver (Colonel)","id":"N10315"},{"text":"Pavon, Maria Medina","id":"N10316"},{"text":"Angel, Adriana","id":"N10317"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[{"text":"Nicaraguan National Guard","id":"AUTH382424"}],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"Iran-Contra affair","id":"V733"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"soldiers","id":"AAT185678"},{"text":"politicians","id":"AAT25474"},{"text":"car","id":"x40636"},{"text":"masks","id":"AAT138758"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.984:1-2008"],"accessionNumberNum":"984","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":2008,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-03","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-08","availableToBook":false}}