It started with a picture, a simple photograph. A few days before the Cherry Blossom Festival on a windy Wednesday evening, we were among the very few people walking along the Tidal Basin, enjoying the just-emerging blossoms. Behind a fence along that path, we saw the still-under-construction Martin Luther King jr. Memorial, attractive even though unfinished. I took a picture of the memorial’s centerpiece, a huge statue of King himself. Though I don’t have a fancy camera, I wanted to see if I could focus on the face, yet include a part of the fence surrounding the site. I was taken aback by the unexpected meaning the picture took on, taken from behind a fence.
Since then, I have been alert to other fences and the subjects behind them, and am surprised at the meanings the combinations of the two convey. To be sure, these photos are all a little contrived. The fences in these shots are only there to protect and control access to construction sites, a worthy goal. The buildings, or memorial, behind them are just being worked on. These photos only juxtapose enclosure and enclosed in ways that suggest interesting, intriguing messages.
Still not free?
I continue to toy with possible captions for this photo, such as, “Still has a dream,” or “Still dreaming the fences (barriers? walls?) will be torn down.” How about “Fenced, yet”? The scaffolding adds another layer of enclosure, adding to the sense of captivity, being held back.
Azaleas: Safe!
Since 9-11, our country has become extraordinarily security-minded, almost, I sometimes think, obsessed with safety. I worry that we risk losing sight of what makes for real security: strengthening our institutions, cities, schools, government, families. Of course we need a certain amount of law enforcement, military, and border security, but those can become the goal instead of the support for what ought to be the goal. Fenced-in azaleas, harmless, beautiful bushes kept safe and sound by a fence, speak to the dangers and absurdities of focusing on our safety without nurturing our well-being. Fertilize, don’t fence!
Transparent, Accessible Government
One of my favorite buildings in this grand Federal City is the Old Executive Office Building, located immediately west of the White House. When it was first built, it housed entire Executive Branch agencies such as the State and the War (later Defense) Department. Now, it contains offices that support the Executive Office of the President. Humorous, especially now with an administration that has worked so hard to improve people’s access to and knowledge about what the government is doing, that this magnificent old building, a symbol of U.S. government, is almost completely obscured by both a fence and sturdy scaffolding. You call this transparent? The clear shot of the American flag fluttering atop the building is the cherry on the sundae, a symbolic denial that anything is hidden from sight.
Utopia: No more buying, selling, and amassing wealth?
I imagine a world with no commerce, no need for the business of buying and selling, no drive to get rich. In my vision of utopia, people would produce what they could and share as they were able. Not only would the shoemaker trade his handiwork for food, but corporations and large businesses, needed to produce cars and computers and provide insurance and more, would limit the profits they keep, sharing their excess with people who have less. I almost laughed when I first saw the Department of Commerce building, undergoing major renovation, boarded up and surrounded by a fence with barbed wire, even! Was the perfect world I envisioned at hand? Had generosity and charity finally won out over greed and selfishness?
Closed for business
Here’s a second shot of a fenced Commerce building. I like it better because it shows the boarded-up windows, but less because the name of the building is harder to read. The first photo is a little more artsy, the second, more expansive.
I liked the lines
There’s no symbol of anything bigger and more significant here. I just liked the lines of the fence and the barriers, and in fact, used the central part of this image as an early header for this blog. I snapped the shot before embarking on the Fences of Washington project. Nothing more sinister than a construction crew taking over a portion of a public street to create a place to store and stage their equipment. Wait a minute! A faceless, nameless conglomerate construction firm taking over needed public property in the name of societal improvement? Yikes! Maybe this does convey something more… I better look at this one a little more carefully.
