A semiotic intervention at a quarry site on the Pacific.

Over a period of several months, I collected scrap pieces of wood and hand made glass tiles to make a heavy, solid door. I then made a wheelbarrow with some more scraps. With this wheelbarrow, I carried the door roughly 2 km to the bottom of an old quarry site. The quarry’s walls made a circle around the bottom and I placed the door at one of the entrances to the quarry.

Tulous are thick, round fortress-dwellings made of rammed earth by the Hakka people in the Fujian and Hunan provinces in China. As a mixed-race person, families and cultural heritage is complicated. Acknowledging the anti-Blackness within my family, I use all of my strength to remain in this position of an uneasy knowing that sits next to my love and loyalty. My body is placed in relation to the fortress that is my extended Hakka family. The entry walls, my body, and the door, simulate an ancient Chinese symbol for home. My home is neither inside nor outside. Rather, I hold myself in suspens(e)-sion, tensed up, waiting for the invitation (or do I have the right to enter unannounced?), yet choosing to firmly stay in place. My will – my agency – is what counts.

Process Shots: This intervention was made with the generous help and participation of Opesanwo Ifakorede, Anysa Saleh (photography), and Tianxing Wang (Photography).