States of Security / Security States (2011)

 

    Using the outer wall (approximately 30' high) of Easter State Penitentiary Historical Site, States of Security / Security States depicts full scale cross section silhouettes (shadows) of the Berlin Wall, the USA / Mexico Border Fence in Nogales Arizona / Sonora, the Israeli West Bank Separation Barrier, the Peace Line Walls in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and the security fence used during the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto.  In all, four continents are represented.  Each wall is a result of a unique context, they all share a similar purpose, and they are all connected.  Eastern State Penitentiary was conceived and build in the early 1800s.  The buildings design and the structure of control was based on strict solitary confinement for all inmates.  The intent was that the environment would inspire penitence and therefore reform. 

    Eastern State would later serve as a model for over 200 penitentiaries built around the world.  The building was abandoned in the early 1970s and opened as a preserved ruin in the mid 1990s.  This project acknowledges the social reality of life in Philadelphia, past and present, in the presence of Eastern State Penitentiary and considers it in a larger context.

States of Security / Security States is an extension of the the project   Separation Wall Global Park:  a proposal (2010-11)

 

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    Commissioned by Eastern State Penitentiary Historical Site as part of their 2012 artist program.

                                        Idea was presented at TEDx Bermuda, October 2011.