Pamela Dodds
VISUAL ARTIST

Documenting Border Barriers addresses the exponential rise in the building of fortified fences and walls between nations and territories to keep people out.

​

As the number of people on the move has risen in recent years, so has the building of physical barriers. People fleeing war and crisis are increasingly met with fences, walls and violence at European borders, on the USA-Mexico border, and at numerous borders worldwide. Since 2000, the number of physical barriers has risen from 15 to more than 70.

​

Primarily through online research, I create individual portraits of specific barriers in the world, using the drypoint etching technique with an under-printing of woodgrain patterns, printed from boards. Each print is accompanied by a companion text print with written description.

 

This growing compendium demonstrates the pervasive policies of obstruction, exclusion, militarization and violence that are  imposed in response to societal shifts and crises, and to human suffering and need.​