Known to its community as the "Makeshift Fence Memorial”, this collaborative piece began with artists Geoffrey Cunningham and Carrie Minikel hanging metal tags on the fence of a deserted gas station. Hand-embossed on each of the metal "cattle tags" (which resemble military dog-tags) is the name of a US Soldier who has died in Iraq, and the date he or she died. The community instantly embraced the site as a place to mourn and share memories of their loved ones, decorating it with notes, flowers, and flags, making the understated loss of troops visible. Soon a city that never talked about war, but always lives under its cloud, began to express itself. Talks began of a more permanent memorial in a city that has no war memorial (though most of the soldiers who have died in Iraq came through Camp Pendleton).
Fence Project, 2004-2006 (participant’s note to her son)
