Site Specific Installation

When we were given this assignment I knew that it would be very difficult for me to choose a location on campus. I feel like I have run out of fresh inspiring places on campus to work with, so when I became truly inspired to install my piece, I went for it. It is at my house because I could think of no better place to put my installation. In this assignment I am confronting a vast amount of intense emotions I have been feeling as a result of an event that happened in my home this past weekend that horrified me. My room mate was taken into custody by policemen this weekend for talking back to a cop that had entered our home without lawful consent. I have never felt so invaded by law enforcement officers before in my life. These people who were supposed to be protecting us had forced their way into my home without asking anyone who lived there and started terrorizing the place. I saw them physically break into my room mate's room, throw her to the ground for not letting them in and physically carry her to the squad car. when she put up a fight they beat her while people watched. The piece I did for this class directly confronts this event and all of the emotions I feel about the frustrations of being treated wrongfully by the people who protect us. I was reading in my abnormal psych class about how all humans have defense mechanisms to help us cope with difficult situations. One of these defense mechanisms is a barrier between reality and the self. I thought somehow by arming my house with a barrier of sorts would help me work out some of these emotional and financial crisis brought on by my situation. I suddenly feel extremely vulnerable in my safe place. So I set out to buy a 20 pound reel of barbed wire to rope my house off. I am a tiny person at 5'3'' and reeling a spiky 20 pound hunk of barbed wire around ones property was an extremely difficult yet therapeutic event. I think just the physical labor of installing this piece was the most cleansing for me. I sliced myself up pretty badly and ran into a cactus, but in the end the tears and labor really helped me to get a load off my mind. I felt sort of like I was a monk doing a walking meditation around a stupa, each time around things were a little more sorted out. Metaphorically, of course. To finish the piece I placed a doormat of nails as an unwelcome mat. The result was disturbing, yet comforting to me. Putting up a physical barrier to the world at one of my most vulnerable moments was a very helpful and beautiful process to me. This was a more successful piece to me in a emotionally charged area than the piece I was planning to do on campus. I felt I needed to deal with an issue I was dealing with in my life with this assignment and how more site specific can you get than a crime scene?