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-ojos noche

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (2004) dir. Hayao Miyazaki

Hani|Bani | En tu órbita

Stelle ; 31 lecciones

I made this comic for Fron//tera magazine. I had the idea before the pandemic started. It’s about how state borders and other kinds of borders (geographical, cultural, ecological, etc) don’t always follow the same logic, and the lives that are impacted by that. It seemed relevant at the time, as families were getting ripped apart at the Mexico-US border, India and Pakistan fought over the Kashmir region, and the Israel/Palestine conflict raged on. My boyfriend (from Spain) and I (from the US) tried to figure out how we could legally live in the same country while paying the least in immigration-related fees. But now this comic seems very irrelevant with all that’s going on. Of course, borders are still very real, but they’re impacting our lives now in totally different ways. If it’s not irrelevant, then it’s just been recontextualized to mean something completely different now– and maybe that’s not the kind of response I want to have when I am feeling so much grief, uncertainty, fear, and anger at what’s going on in the world. Everything has changed. There’s no going back to a time when this comic would be interpreted in the same way. I’m sure this has been said before, but any art that’s made now is going to be always in conversation with this new world. And if it doesn’t respond explicitly, it’s still responding by refusing to respond to it. Like if I see a movie where people are at a party, or traveling to a different country, or simply walking around outside, all I can think of is how all of that is impossible now. It’s like there’s some border now that defines pre-pandemic art and post-pandemic art.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008) Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) Castle in the Sky (1986) When Marnie Was There (2014) Spirited Away (2001) From Up on Poppy Hill (2011) Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

深夜