Canadian Artist Pamela Dodds Presents “Documenting Border Barriers” at Tallinn University
Canadian visual artist Pamela Dodds presents “Documenting Border Barriers: A Selection of the Prints”, opening at Tallinn University’s Mare building. The exhibition is part of the conference “Beyond Borders: Creative Methods and Reflexive Approaches to Migration, Media, and Intercultural Dialogue” and will remain open until September 19.
Dodds’ internationally recognized series explores the exponential rise of fences and walls built to prevent the movement of people across national borders. Since 2000, the number of border walls worldwide has surged from approximately 15 to over 75. Through 25+ original drypoint etchings, each paired with a companion text, Dodds visualizes these structures and their human implications.
“My work focuses on the architecture of exclusion,” says Pamela Dodds. “By isolating each barrier against abstracted landscapes, I want viewers to confront the starkness of these walls and the realities they represent.”
Pamela Dodds is a Canadian visual artist whose work addresses human connections and divisions in contemporary society. Her printmaking and painting have been exhibited and collected across North America and, more recently, in Europe.
Each etching in Documenting Border Barriers depicts a specific anti-migration border barrier, created through this methodical and multi-step technique. The imagery and texts are derived from online research, documentary photographs, reports, and testimonials. To emphasize the severity of the barriers, Dodds omits direct depictions of their surroundings, instead evoking landscape and sky through under-printed woodgrain textures.
Reflecting on the exhibition’s context, Dodds adds: “The DzԴڱԳ’s focus on creative approaches—many of which involve direct participation and collaboration with migrating people—drew my interest, as did the geography and history of Estonia. I am very pleased to learn about perspectives from Estonia. As a visual artist, I find that ‘border-crossing’ between disciplines of art, geography, political science, and research fosters open and diverse dialogue that expands understanding, perspectives, and methodologies.”
Selections from the series have previously been exhibited in Canada and Mexico, with individual works shown in the United States, Belgium, and Poland. The series has also received awards at international exhibitions in Belgium and Poland. The next full installation will be presented by in Bolzano/Bozen, Italy, as part of B-Shapes (Borders Shaping Perceptions of European Societies), running November 13, 2025 – February 28, 2026.
For more information, please contact Dr. , Professor of Intercultural Communication at Tallinn University’s Baltic Film, Media and Arts School, and chair of the ECREA Diaspora, Migration and the Media – International and Intercultural Communication Sections Conference “Beyond Borders: Creative Methods and Reflexive Approaches to Migration, Media, and Intercultural Dialogue
