THE TACARIGUA SCULPTURAL PLAYSPACE PROJECT -Fence,Green Fence-Memory Fence - Is a fence just a fence– The art of memorializing memory into design

The Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project

FENCE,GREEN FENCE-MEMORY FENCE

Is a fence just a fence.

The art of memorializing memory into design

Even with good design, a fence will remain a fence,
with memory, a fence begins to build,
deconstruct old and modern notions of
"fencing in"

Fencing,

installing/erecting barriers is a symbol of structural political performance, it symbolizes a power dynamic, set in feudal relationships to land ownership, rights, access, privilege. The act of placing a fence, playing a fence, designing a fence; falls into one or more aspects of political performativity, establishing making political boundaries; keeping in, shutting out. As much as we may want to apply principles of social justice to the act. A fence is a fence.

“DON’T FENCE ME IN” – Cole Porter

We came to this “Fence” through three steps;

1.    Philosophy – there was an understanding, that as a safety measure, this fence must not only act as a boundary, but act, as a sculptural form, a work of art, which speaks to the people, through their history

2.    Community Consultation – some members of the community had concerns about the junction, as the playspace will buttress the junction, of the Priority Bus Route, PBR, and Orange Grove Road, where the western side of the PlaySpace will run, North-South. These two concerns were

a.    Pollution from cars and buses

b.    The possibility of accidents

In light of this, a green fence was conceptualized to deal with these concerns, in a sustainable way.

3.    Vernacular Design – the art of memorializing memory into design

a.    Through iconographic texturing, impaled onto the surface of sculptural forms,

b.    The fence must be seen as work of art, as a functional sculptural formula – this space must and should be able to be seen in the drawings of a child

c.    History – the space, the fence; always was to speak, in a very personal way to the heritage of the people of the Tacarigua

These three steps, will see the “evangelism of art” an experience which is acknowledged as one of art’s emotive reactions.

This evangelizing of the fence, brings a state act into the personal space of the body; through –

1.    Ritualism of the body, in relational to the fence, the communal space/allows for this to be nurtured….yet the “fence” have this possibility to bring the body in relational opposites to it, developing another kind of performativity, of spiritual awakening in

2.    The Spirit, the Intellect, the Mind – this other action, another type of relation, existential in nature. Almost immeasurable, yet profoundly important, in developing the familiar

3.    The Aesthetics – within aesthetics, lies the formula, the didactic nature of form, is as important for the two, too happen properly. Yet the nature of our cultural experience must and should highlight the importance of the politics of aesthetic, in achieving social justice.

There are three, views memory brings the body into reaction, action to the fence,
transforming and challenging aesthetics. There is
1-the moving body,
2-the contemplative,
3-the gathering 

It is in this moment we will radically alter the symbolic ideals of the fence as a provocateur of the state’s authoritarianism and capitalism consumption of communal space.

This is the nirvana of art

Memory allows the political body to engage a new relational.
This new relational evokes a new political body.
There are 4 modules, I have identified so far
1-personal
2-family/friends/community
3-walking
4-driving

Esoteric Values in design is implied as we search for meaning in aesthetics. The political act, in search of social justice, overrides esoterics, as Black Stalin’s – Wait Dorothy Wait

“As ah take up meh pen to wright the first verse, this is what I remember, oil money come and oil money go, an poor people remain on the pavement and the ghetto, so when Mr. divider start to divide the bread equally, yes ah going to finidh the whole dam calypso about Dorothy, how ah jam she, and she jam me and we roll back,

But once my people fighting for an equal share of the cake,

Wait Dorothy wait”

We must here a stake in the symbolism, as we sit in the privilege position, of class and position, we must seek on behalf of the commons; space an aesthetics equivalent to the political identity of the proletariat, that commonality of space.  Therefore, the fence in its essence, must hold the power of the chantwel, to become somewhat like, the Caribbean Wailing Wall.