March 17 – April 28, 2006

Fences – Borders is a multi-media installation based on Lerman’s interest in the US/Mexico border, and his field recordings of the fences that (supposedly) separate the two countries. Attaching contact microphones to the fences, he picks up the sound of wind, plants, and garbage as they interact with the steel structure. In the gallery, an 18-foot coil of dried bougainvillaea, a woody vine, divides the space, its spines standing in for the hostile razor wire of the border fence. Transducers embedded within the wood turn the plant material into a speaker, which then transmits the original recordings. The walls are covered with maps of the border, and video footage of the fences is also projected.

Fences – Borders is copresented by Nonsequitur, a nonprofit organization that presents an ongoing series of concerts and other sonic events in the Seattle area.

Artists