My public art project will be a performance piece. A Clorox bottle with a slapped label of “WHITE AMERICA” will be attached to tubes then attached to an Indigenous person laying on a hospital bed. The performer will then act as though they are on their deathbed -- frail, weak, can hardly speak, screaming at onlookers for help, and reaching for passerbyers.
I want to create a relation of current politics to the past and present effects of cultural erasure within the Indigenous and POC communities.
Just recently, during a press conference, President Trump implicitly suggested that individuals inject themselves with sanitation products to help combat the spread of COVID-19. When thinking of the power of these words, and the communities that are most affected by COVID-19, I was moved to create a piece that would reflect the dangers of his words. Moreover, I wanted to reflect what Trump symbolizes as the President -- white America. Thinking of these connections and the many interpretations to lost Indigenous land in America, this public art piece transpired as many people began their own interpretations of themselves in memes connected to disinfecting products. I wanted to reverse this light-take on Trump’s comments, and create a serious piece to induce a state of anger yet inspiration for change.
This project will be left to interpretation for onlookers -- though it is visually explicit in nature. My aim is to make people feel uncomfortable with the comfortability of white America that has penetrated our history, ancestors, and continues to do so with rhetoric that endangers our culture and people.
Ideally, this performance piece will create a ripple effect of anger transformed into inspiration for individuals to stand up against social injustices and these harmful rhetorics.
As I am proud to be a Chicana raised in Los Angeles, I only thought it appropriate to have this public art project displayed and performed at Olvera Street -- ideally on a busy Saturday afternoon when families often come to visit Olvera Street and Union Station.
My project reflects the ties that the Indigenous communities have to the land I call home, Los Angeles, CA -- however, it serves as a commentary of the white America that has caused for cultural erasure amongst not only Indigenous communities, but amongst communities of color alike. So, when trying to think of a public art project, I wanted to convey this history of erasure in some relation to current times of COVID-19.
I hope for this project to enrich the lives of people in Los Angeles to open up a dialect and conversation surrounding white supremacy in America that ties the past effects to the present. Los Angeles is full of diverse culture, so to have this piece take place in the heart of LA means to symbolically have a call for social justice at the core of our being.
My understanding is that complicity is a contributing factor, but to be aware of such injustices that continue to take place in our every day, will only allow for a progressive change for the future.
