Yoon Lee, Alberto Toscano, Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, Lauren A. Toomer, photo by San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries and Phillip Maisel
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Asma Kazmi, Pamela Z, Esther Elia, photo by San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries and Phillip Maisel
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How does San Francisco, a city of transients, of waves of people who come and go, inform our understanding of the word sanctuary? Sanctuary suggests safety, refuge, and comfort, and it is figured in the heart and mind. Holy places also provide sanctuary—the inner sanctum being most sacred. Today, the act of offering sanctuary has also become a call to protest, to challenge federal law in light of humanitarianism and human rights. Yet with the rising cost of living, the demographic of San Francisco is changing, prompting questions. What do San Franciscans, both its residents and its diasporic community, think about the highly-debated issue of sanctuary? This exhibition features artworks that weigh in on the subject, considering related subjects such as civic dialogue, immigration, diaspora, borderlands, belonging, nationalism, and public activism.
The subject of sanctuary cities is an apt theme for a municipal art gallery exhibition. In the United States, there are more than 175 such jurisdictions: they are found in the District of Columbia and in six states. At a time when dozens of state legislatures are actively considering prohibition of sanctuary policy, San Francisco’s commitment is more urgent than ever. In theory and in practice, a sanctuary provides haven for the vulnerable. In this exhibition, artists explore the fullness of the sanctuary concept, for it stretches from the constructs of sacred architectural form and demarcations of geographical space to experienced conditions of refuge and comfort, felt in the heart and in the mind. San Francisco’s fight for the right to offer sanctuary has placed the city at the heart of a national and international debate concerning immigration, refugees, and asylum seekers. In doing so, the city has created a space for public activism and debate, forms of empowerment for individuals, and our representative government. The artworks in this exhibition are meant to generate dialogue and civic engagement among San Francisco residents and visitors.
The artists in side by side/in the world approach material and medium in new ways, giving mark-making new life as a metaphor for renewal, revision and recollecting. In works that investigate histories of exclusion, and migration, artists employ processes and materials that suggest healing and mending. Others involve relationship-building through engagement with recent immigrants and asking questions about family histories. Still others approach the genre of landscape by transforming it into a poetic, otherworldly space of the imagination that nonetheless maintain a connection to the lived world. The unique formal approaches in the exhibition can therefore be read as metaphors for cultivating sanctuary. In a 1989 poem titled “Sanctuary,” Jimmy Santiago Baca describes the refugee’s harsh journey taken in search of safety. An American of Chicano and Apache heritages, Baca begins the poem with this line: “I could not disengage my world from the rest of humanity.”1 Weaving between intimate and collective spaces, side by side/in the world takes inspiration from Baca, whose words should prompt us to engage in the broadest sense—to take care of each other and our fragile planet.
Artists: Eddie Aparicio, Esther Elia, Sheila Ghidini, Asma Kazmi, Yoon Lee, Crystal Liu, Lisa Solomon, Lauren Toomer, Alberto Toscano, Pamela Z
Curated by Kathy Zarur and Jacqueline Francis
San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery
July - September 2019
The subject of sanctuary cities is an apt theme for a municipal art gallery exhibition. In the United States, there are more than 175 such jurisdictions: they are found in the District of Columbia and in six states. At a time when dozens of state legislatures are actively considering prohibition of sanctuary policy, San Francisco’s commitment is more urgent than ever. In theory and in practice, a sanctuary provides haven for the vulnerable. In this exhibition, artists explore the fullness of the sanctuary concept, for it stretches from the constructs of sacred architectural form and demarcations of geographical space to experienced conditions of refuge and comfort, felt in the heart and in the mind. San Francisco’s fight for the right to offer sanctuary has placed the city at the heart of a national and international debate concerning immigration, refugees, and asylum seekers. In doing so, the city has created a space for public activism and debate, forms of empowerment for individuals, and our representative government. The artworks in this exhibition are meant to generate dialogue and civic engagement among San Francisco residents and visitors.
The artists in side by side/in the world approach material and medium in new ways, giving mark-making new life as a metaphor for renewal, revision and recollecting. In works that investigate histories of exclusion, and migration, artists employ processes and materials that suggest healing and mending. Others involve relationship-building through engagement with recent immigrants and asking questions about family histories. Still others approach the genre of landscape by transforming it into a poetic, otherworldly space of the imagination that nonetheless maintain a connection to the lived world. The unique formal approaches in the exhibition can therefore be read as metaphors for cultivating sanctuary. In a 1989 poem titled “Sanctuary,” Jimmy Santiago Baca describes the refugee’s harsh journey taken in search of safety. An American of Chicano and Apache heritages, Baca begins the poem with this line: “I could not disengage my world from the rest of humanity.”1 Weaving between intimate and collective spaces, side by side/in the world takes inspiration from Baca, whose words should prompt us to engage in the broadest sense—to take care of each other and our fragile planet.
Artists: Eddie Aparicio, Esther Elia, Sheila Ghidini, Asma Kazmi, Yoon Lee, Crystal Liu, Lisa Solomon, Lauren Toomer, Alberto Toscano, Pamela Z
Curated by Kathy Zarur and Jacqueline Francis
San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery
July - September 2019