Title: CUSTOMIZE, 2003 Artist: Julio Morales In collaboration with Rachel Hewlett (San Francisco Art Institute) Claudio Michelo (Urban Pioneer High School) Exhibition Dates: June 15 – September 20, 2003

CUSTOMIZE is a billboard project by Bay Area artist Julio Morales, San Francisco Art Institute student Rachel Hewlett and Urban Pioneer High School student Claudio Michelo. The project sets out to document the visual icons of globalization within the Mission district through the perspectives of youth and local informal economies. CUSTOMIZE attempts to illustrate the complex "feedback loop" of globalization by documenting the process of Latino migrants who customize "stock" consumer items as a form of economic adaptation and as a sign of social and urban resistance. The photo-based illustrations of the billboard include; a flower vender who customizes plastic 10 gallon buckets and re-appropriated Disney characters, an orange vendor who works out of a graffiti-covered converted Pacific Bell van and a custom vehicle for recycling bottles and cans made from Safeway shopping carts. CUSTOMIZE is part of Galeria's digital mural series "Pervasive Forces: Globalization, Private Identities and the Public Sphere." The series is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.