Agnes Tessner Risser

Architecture and Anthropology major

Fortified Fort Independence

concrete, soil, plants

Fortified Elmina Castle

hydrocal concrete, soil, plants

PNW new wing

concrete sculpture of a roughly star-shaped fort wall, filled with dirt with a few sparse plants emerging from it, on the floor in a corner surrounded 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 sculpture of a fortified castle with spaces between the walls filled with brown dirt, on the floor in front of windows

top down view of a roughly star-shaped fort sculpture made of gray concrete, filled with brown dirt out of which one green fern and a few twigs with pink flowers emerge

top down view of a white sculpture of a fortified castle, with the spaces between the walls filled with brown dirt

close up on a gray concrete sculpture filled with brown dirt, with redbud twigs with pink flowers

section of hallway with polished gray concrete floor and big windows; a gray concrete ssculpture is on the floor at back, and a white concrete sculpture filled with brown dirt is closer to the camera

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