There is power in being able to provide

(Sanctuary is a practice series)
Weston Teruya with Nate Watson
paper sculpture from various papers including paper pulp mixed with mud collected from the Bayview shoreline, and pH testing paper
sculpture: 46″ x 19.5″ x 3″  // print: 68″ x 47.25″
2018

The plow arm at the center of this sculpture honors San Francisco Bayview neighborhood resident Nate Watson’s grandfather, Dr. P. O. Sweeney, a polymath African American civil rights leader in Kentucky. Sweeney purchased less desirable rural land to start a small farm to provide economic self-sufficiency and physical escape for his family and community even in the face of racist menaces like cross burnings and bomb threats. Reflecting on this history, Watson noted, “there’s power in being able to provide.” The use of mud from the Bayview reflects what Watson sees as the connections between this familial history and his current work in the Bayview community, where traditions of entrepreneurship and collective resource building still flourish to help the community survive on ecologically distressed land which until more recently had not been seen as desirable to others.

The sculpture is centered on a plow arm shaped from paper pulp and mud, with recreations of brassica juncea, a mustard plant sometimes used in bioremediation.

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