DETAINMENT MAP (2009)

Chain link fence with gate, barbed wire, soil
15′ × 12′ × 8′

(Installation view: Fort Zachary Taylor State Historic Site, Key West, FL)

Detainment Map is a site-specific sculpture, situated at a military fort in Key West, the southernmost point in the United States, with the shortest distance to Cuba of just 90 miles. This sculpture reflects upon the complex detainee issues surrounding the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, the only U.S. naval base on communist soil. Rather than dictate a particular political message, De St. Croix seeks to have the viewer ask questions and draw their own conclusions based on their experience with the work. Detainment Map outlines the Naval Station’s border within Cuba in chain-link fencing, containing the landscape as well as visitors to the park. The work utilizes a scale similar to the proportion of the base’s detainee cells. However, the gesture the sculpture makes is to allow viewers free entrance and exit through the gate.

Ink drawings in support of the project and its research can be viewed in the “paper” section.