A Space Between Us
A Space Between Us was a state-sponsored public art project that documented testimonies from residents in San Bernardino, CA during the pandemic. I was commissioned to make this work in collaboration with the community as part of a campaign to stop the spread of COVID-19. Through photography, audio, video and a printed zine, we were able to chronicle how people were faring during a time of social distance—surfacing the economic disparities which often determine public health.
Our public art project evolved into a community zine called The Space which features local artists addressing topics at the intersection of the environment, labor, and social justice. Approaching it’s 3rd year of circulation, it is now run by and for the community with grants from local partners.
Live from the Frontline
In collaboration with community archivists A People’s History of the I.E., I co-wrote a grant for Live from the Frontline; a participatory public memory project inviting artists into the archives and the landscapes of logistics to create site-specific works that explore the roots of environmental racism. The project includes eight sites located in Riverside and San Bernardino where long histories of colonialism and extraction from the land and labor are palpable, offering opportunities to reflect on “the slow violence of the supply chain.” For this project, I led a team of artists to create works at 5 sites in San Bernardino, Bloomington, Colton, and Fontana.
COMMUNITY ACTIVATIONS
Site Event: St. Mark’s Baptist Church, July 28th, 2024
San Bernardino
St. Mark’s Baptist church is closing its doors after 95 years in the Valley Truck Farms area. Once a fertile, picturesque Black farming community—it is now surrounded by warehouse development and a dwindling congregation that reflects the lack of residences in the area. Our team digitized their photographs and documents, created an installation at the church and I wrote an article for Black Voice News bringing visibility to the strain on the congregation.
Site Event: Zimmerman Elementary School, June 15th, 2024
Bloomington
In 2022, San Bernardino County approved Bloomington Business Park, a 213-acre industrial deal that promised to bring jobs to Bloomington— a Latino community of 23,000 residents. Bloomington was once a rural, agricultural area where locals tended horses and farmed. With this business park, Howard Industrial Partners, one of the largest warehouse developers in the area, has forever changed the landscape. Included in these plans, will be a land swap that will see Zimmerman Elementary School be torn down and moved to another neighboring lot. In the wake of this development, over 100 households will be displaced, and once constructed, the nearest residence will sit only 11 feet away from a distribution center; downwind of more air pollution, like neighboring Rialto and Fontana.
Working with my student Ferny, who was born and raised in Bloomington, we installed a community intervention at the school before the historic move. Members of the community decorated cardboard boxes and filled a shipping container with their personal archives in resistance to what has forever changed their way of life. A cabalgata was organized for another struggling family in fear of eviction.
Click here to view the project website and site/exhibition launches.
Special thanks and credit to: Adrian Metoyer, who led all of my drone work and supported at all locations. Fernanda Durazo, James M Dailey and Jonathan Arthurs—my supporting artists on the project who hail from these communities . Dr. Catherine Gudis, Dr. Jennifer Tilton and Dr. Audrey Meier with whom I dug through crates, mined digital collections, scanned and secured permissions.
*This project has been generously funded by the California Arts Council.