“Wall” followed a recent trip to Israel that left me feeling conflicted. There were vivid contrasts that left my head spinning. What was a constant was the evocative quality of the ancient stones. I took photo after photo, knowing that I would do something with them when I got home. Because I came upon a call for submissions from an upcoming show in Poland, “Breaching Borders,” I slightly altered my concept and condensed my working time to meet the deadline and requirements.

I racked up crazy hours to finish this piece, like a woman possessed. I printed my photos on cotton, silk, and organza, building up the surface like the strata in an archaeological site. I had to alter existing photos of other walls: Hadrian’s Wall, the Great Wall of China, and the Berlin Wall in order to comment on the very nature of walls. I combined photos and created free-form abstract ideas of stones in order to construct the walls piece by piece. 

Because I listened to news shows while I was working, I became angry and more and more distraught. This fueled the political content of this piece. I had to “borrow” and “alter” images from media sites to create the emotional impact.