Finding Passage

Description

This was the transformation of a barrier into a passageway; the transformation of a symbol of conflict into a symbol for healing and growth.

All the metal in this artwork was repurposed chain link fence sections, taken from a local hotspot of community conflict. For two years, this fence had walled off the site of a heated battle over the cutting down of an historic WWI-memorial grove of Coast Live Oaks. The fight over the space had been bitter, even seeing protesters living permanently in the tree canopies for years to protect them.

These sections of chain link fence were taken from that site, hammered down, and reshaped into a leafy echo of the land they once barricaded. Reformed into a passageway instead of a barricade, it was mounted around the doorway of a Chiropractor’s office — a place where injured people go to seek out healing.