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At times I instigate or have been invited to make objects as a "solo" artist. The following sample are approached as opportunities to meditate on specific ideas, legacies or historical moments. Click on any image for more detail and text.
False Friends, 2015. Created for the Urban Futures Field of Inquiry at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Inspired by conversations about the way market-based theories of change infiltrate social justice movements. Special thanks to Andreas Gurewich, Michi Osato, Julia Allen, David Stein, Isa Nakazawa and Ananya Roy.
6' x 8' Acrylic on canvas
What Arises Will Pass, 2011. Salt, water, chalk, Alcatraz dishware
Created to honor the California prisoner hunger strike of 2011 (which then continued over the following two years). Inherent in the representation of hunger strikes and public fasts featured here is the recognition of interconnectedness, sacrifice and impermanence – the belief that one’s life, and how it is lived will ease the suffering of the greater body despite the death of one of its parts. Though specific demands are set and can in some cases seem inconsequential compared to the gravity of the possible result – access to art supplies, recognition of political prisoner status, the right to wear one’s clothes in prison – the strikes and fasts are catalysts, spurring and focusing the action of larger networks for common causes of peace, freedom and self-determination. These are fasts done as last resort, often by people who are deeply and spiritually grounded in their own commitment to a cause, through compassion or love. They look death in the face, as a mirror of activation for the present. How does someone’s willingness to give their life in support of a common cause give vitality to a movement, especially for the people who are not willing or able to do so?
As I researched and reflected on the actions of the five fasts referenced in this piece, I was struck by the power of the fasters’ sacrifice for the intention of easing their own suffering and the suffering of those who will come after. This installation is designed as a meditative space. I invited viewers to pull a very small bit of salt from one of the plates and as they read the quotes and circle the space, ask themselves “How does my life and legacy contribute to reducing suffering in the world?” As they placed the salt in the center bowl of water, I asked them to keep this thought in their mind as the salt changes state, from solid to liquid, slowly over time.
Strikes, fasts and texts featured in the piece:
César Chávez
Delano Plan, 1965
Bobby Sands
Letter from Tuesday the 17th, 1981 (translation by Samuel Conway)
Mahatama Gandhi
1947
Alice Paul
From her statement in court and to reporters, 1917
Michael Martinez (Pelican Bay SHU)
Letter to his mother, July 23, 2011
Oakland Transit Police Shooting/Arkansas Anti-Education Mob
Acrylic on plexiglass
2012
This piece pulls apart two moments of racialized violence that have been immortalized in the public imagination through their iconic documentation – the murder of the unarmed Oscar Grant by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle in 2009, and the first day of integration by the Little Rock Nine in Arkansas in 1957. By placing these moments on a reflective surface, the works ask, what is the role of a viewer in the perpetuation of such actions? By altering these flashpoint moments so they are not immediately recognizable the works seek to also slow an ingrained reaction to the moments in an attempt to see them not as isolated events that vilify an individual, but as reflective of a society and state in which these events repeatedly occur. The Mehserle painting later became part of the set that I designed for Chinaka Hodge's play, Chasing Mehserle.
Oakland Transit Police Shooting/Arkansas Anti-Education Mob
Acrylic on plexiglass
2012
This piece pulls apart two moments of racialized violence that have been immortalized in the public imagination through their iconic documentation – the murder of the unarmed Oscar Grant by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle in 2009, and the first day of integration by the Little Rock Nine in Arkansas in 1957. By placing these moments on a reflective surface, the works ask, what is the role of a viewer in the perpetuation of such actions? By altering these flashpoint moments so they are not immediately recognizable the works seek to also slow an ingrained reaction to the moments in an attempt to see them not as isolated events that vilify an individual, but as reflective of a society and state in which these events repeatedly occur. The Mehserle painting later became part of the set that I designed for Chinaka Hodge's play, Chasing Mehserle.
Detail, Oakland Transit Police Shooting/Arkansas Anti-Education Mob
Acrylic on plexiglass
2012
Detail, Oakland Transit Police Shooting/Arkansas Anti-Education Mob
Acrylic on plexiglass
2012
Sadness
Oil and acrylic on canvas, found bottle caps
2009
One of four rosary pieces. This piece was created during a period of concentrated gun violence in San Francisco.
Listen to your thoughts
Oil and acrylic on canvas, found pencils
2009
A rosary for the 6th Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle (2005) by the EZLN or Zapatista Army of National Liberation, which initiated the Other Campaign. The Other Campaign centered around the principle of listening.
We Alone
Oil and acrylic on canvas, found shells
2009
A rosary for Alice Walker's poem We Alone, which suggests alternative value systems based on abundance rather than scarcity.
An edifice of compassion
Oil and acrylic on canvas, found pennies
2009
A rosary for Dr. King's invocation that, "true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar, it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring," from his anti-Vietnam war speech, A Time to Break the Silence, 1967.
After the fire
My US history textbooks, text from James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, broken glass
A meditation on a Baldwin passage that focuses on the 'drowning' mirror of whiteness, deep change and love.