Terra Nullius is Latin for “Nobody’s Thing” or “Nobody’s Land”; land uninhabited or belonging to no one. In international law it is used to designate “a territory which has never been subject to the sovereignty of any state. It has been used to build empires, to claim rights of Manifest Destiny, and carries the notion of speculation, for example international airspace, oceans beyond the continental shelf, outer space and the planets of the solar system are also designated as terra nullius. Often a swath of land between two contested territories, it points to borders, walls, and issues of citizenry.
The exhibition explores these questions and the in-between space that the title implies through painting, architecture, and social practice, activating the space that Verge provides as a cultural institution within the expanded site of the State Capitol in Sacramento, and beyond it, in the US.