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Agnes Tessner Risser:

Remember a Place Not Here
 
Agnes Tessner Risser
Architecture and Anthropology major
 
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Fortified Fort Independence
concrete, soil, plants
 
Fortified Elmina Castle
hydrocal concrete, soil, plants
 
star shaped concrete form with dirt and a few plants in it, on the floor in a corner framed by windows
 
 
Models of Fort Independence in Boston and Elmina Castle in Ghana are filled with soil and live, edible plants that are native to the location of each fort. The growth of indigenous dietary fortification inside of colonial military fortifications is intended to model the reclamation of colonized spaces by native people and the recovery of anthropized space by nature. The two actual forts have been reused in other ways, but these constructions represent the possibility of redefining stolen space using organic materials that have historically strengthened native bodies.
 
white walled fort model filled with dark dirt, sitting on the floor with windows behind
 
 
close up on a multi angled set of wood walls with soil in the channel between them
 
close up on the corner of a gray concrete structure filled with dark dirt and a thin branch covered in pink flowers
 
corner of a hallway with gray polished concrete floor and floor to ceiling windows; at left is a gray concrete star shaped form, at right is a white fort model
 
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