Source of the brook, root of the tree
(Sanctuary is a practice series)
in conversation with Mabel Teng (based on research by Him Mark Lai)
paper sculpture from various recycled papers, cardboard, and paper thread
sculpture: 33.5″ x 18″ x 4″ // print: 68″ x 47.25″
2018
The duration of the xenophobic Chinese Exclusion Act (and decades of anti-immigrant labor agitation and lynchings of Chinese migrant workers) meant that the Chinese American community needed to mobilize multiple generations of activists in order to survive, noted community activist Mabel Teng when asked what sanctuary looked like for her community. The protest signs and sashes referenced here acknowledge the work of community groups like early anarchists Ping Sheh, labor collectives such as the Chinese Workers’ Mutual Aid Association, and youth organizations like Min-Quing.
For more information see: H. Mark Lai’s “A Historical Survey of the Chinese Left in America” (1976).
Sanctuary is a Practice is a series of objects that explore the histories of communities who have had to self-organize or create alliances with other groups to build their own sanctuaries, systems of mutual aid, and resilient cultures in the face of injustice and xenophobia. These pieces take the form of imagined talismans that invoke a sense of protection and resistance to adverse forces by combining cultural references and archival materials to tell a story about the practice of collective survival.
The series was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission – Public Art Program‘s Art on Market Street Kiosk Poster Series (a project co-funded by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency). The artists selected for 2018 were asked to create work exploring the theme of “sanctuary” and San Francisco’s role as a Sanctuary City.
sculpture photograph by Kija Lucas, street installation photos by WT
Exhibition history:
Dreaming People’s History: The Asian American Radical Imagination, Kearny Street Workshop & SF Public Library’s Jewett Gallery, San Francisco (2023)
Sanctuary is a Practice/em>, Art on Market Street Poster Series, San Francisco Arts Commission – Public Art Program, San Francisco (2018)
