fence raising/razing is a participatory form of arts-based research that centers bodies in public space. My body, your body, the body of the amaranth, and the body of the fence are all tools for “thinking-with." Six women, walking in thick grass and surrounded by dense, green trees, each carry or drag parts of a fence. In New England, a wooden picket fence is seen as a quaint symbol of cultural heritage; it’s recognized as a look of care and pride for one’s land and garden. While picturesque, fences—and gardens—are at the heart of land encroachment and oppression in North America. So to dismantle it, and to carry and drag it publicly across the land, both challenges traditional thinking and provokes questions. Broadening the viewer’s experience of a fence, the performance creates possibility space.
Left behind from the performance was a site-specific sculpture, Threshold. Calling attention to the line between public and private space, it implies violence at the same time it welcomes viewers.