Picket fences embody many of the contradictions that interest me in our relationship to the concept of private property. In studying and photographing actual fences I came to appreciate what an elegant vernacular solution the picket fence was to the need to demarcate property.

The picket fence literally stakes our claim – not just to a piece of land, but to our homes. In drawing this line around us, it provides a definition of who we are and who our neighbors are. The picket fence evolved from earlier methods of defensive fortification, but today it’s protective function is largely symbolic. What once was a means of protection now serves as a statement of a certain group of nostalgic ideas about bucolic, happy small-town American life.

In Bastion, the notion of fortification is taken to an extreme. Instead of a simple decoration around the edge of a property, each picket has been extended the depth of a building lot, completely surrounding the home within. The fence keeps all intruders and visitors out, but also keeps occupants in.

Periphery also suggests a sense of claustrophobia, possessiveness and paranoia. The work is meant to be seen from inside the fence, which can be entered. From within, the 16-foot by 20-inch space, the viewer can do nothing more than pace from one end to the other, like a sentry on duty – ever vigilant of what is just beyond the edge of the demarcated space.