Mary Ann Peters | the world is a garden, the walls are the state, 2017
Presented by James Harris Gallery
Seattle artist Mary Ann Peters presents a new monolithic sculpture, the world is a garden, the walls are the state (2017), comprised of an internal white cube coated with flowers and seen through the veil of a honeycomb patterned screen. An interpretation of a phrase from the 14th-century North African Arab historian Ibn Kaldun, “The world is a garden, the walls are the state” — and the result of her research and observations of the Syrian exodus in the generation of her grandparents and today — Peters’ installation is the foundation for an ongoing series titled “impossible monuments,” which aim to give voice to “small influential narratives within migration histories that deserve reverence.”