Natural disasters and accidents are inevitable but it is human aggression where we experience the loss of art, architecture and historical sites that are neither designed nor intends to be destroyed. To deliberately eradicate identity is to eradicate art and objects of symbolic meaning. We have witnessed systematic destruction of heritage as an attempt to destroy cultural diversity through religious or ideological reasoning, political agenda, activism or cultural curation. The sledgehammer, bullet, bomb, water or earthquake perform the destruction - I wanted to reimagine an object that is simultaneously a symbol and protectant. When building protective barricades for fortification in front of and around culturally significant objects and architecture they then become the new identity and description for the object they are protecting. Through the use of common art making materials: canvas, marble and wood, they are reinterpreted as devices to defend, deter or lessen destruction but also form a new autonomous work to be visited, viewed and contemplated.

When drugs for lethal injections become unattainable we investigate or revert to alternatives versus abolishing the act all together. The controversy of capital punishment, need for retribution, suspicion of innocence and moral culpability is ricocheted around the room. Whereas voluntary euthanasia, perhaps presented by the same voices, is questioned as an ethical entitlement of a terminal illness. Election cycles and political posturing carry a slate of topics certain to incite opinions, provoke beliefs and create an atmosphere of side choosing. How should we discipline behavior and legislate morality?