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Based on the premise of building cross-cultural dialogue, On the Wall includes a large-scale mixed media installation created by a culturally diverse crew of social activists, painters and free spirits known as the Trust Your Struggle artist collective, as well as a selection of video shorts produced by artists associated with Kearny Street Workshop.
The Trust Your Struggle (TYS) crew has utilized art and muralism as powerful tools for social activism, raising awareness on critical social issues in communities around North and Central America. In this installation, TYS has created a multi-dimensional storybook narrative conveyed through the ominous and spiritual journey of migrants. The story eloquently speaks of the collective struggle for survival amidst the daunting pressures of a fast paced nation, foreign landscapes and often unjust immigration policies.
The exploration of shifting identities, loss and cultural transformation offered in the video shorts selected by Kearney Street Workshop, parallel this sculptural narrative. The featured videos offer factual representations as well as subjective interpretations, revealing the personal and contradictory dimensions of geographic, economic, and cultural displacement.
This collaboration between Galería and KSW is the culmination of a year-long exhibition series entitled “Picturing Immigration,” which sought to explore this complex debate from the unpredictable perspective of contemporary artists.
The physical, spiritual and psychological layers that comprise the experience of migration are present in these dynamic works: their similar stories and contrasting iconographies interact to bring depth to the very human emotions of loss, courage, redemption and hope.
Raquel de Anda
Associate Curator
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