On a daily basis, we interact with fences, walls, and other barriers that take up different shapes and sizes. Subconsciously, we automatically accept that their purposes, and reasons for being, demand separation. One could say that it depends on one’s perspective, and even one’s understanding of “history”, to be able to accurately define a fence’s purpose, whether it’s to keep “others” away or keep a group inside a perimeter. But whether it be to designate a space as private property or with restricted access, to delineate where the lands of neighboring countries begin and end, or to classify neighborhoods and their social classes as a result of their divide, a fence as a concept and construction, more often than not, takes on the task of diving groups of people within different scales of space. At times they can act one in the same, internally and externally, on an abstract or symbolic level. But when it comes to its actual physical manifestation, a fence can have an element of false transparency to them. These structures of separation entail the use of a set design pattern, interconnecting the material being used, and as a result leave hollow, negative spaces one can fit their fingers through. Think about farms, construction sites, industrial warehouses. These spaces are protected by established barriers, i.e. fences, that keep us out while still offering a view into what’s being guarded. It’s a dynamic in which we are given the optics into something we cannot fully comprehend or access. We’re made aware of a reality existing adjacent to us, yet we’re denied its details, the names involved, or the ability to touch and feel what’s beyond the barrier. But what if a barrier can act as a door into these narratives rather than negating our access?
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