Youth Activist Art Archive

Hindsight

This play is written and devised by Granger High Theatre Company.

CHASM

A devised theatre piece on national division and unity. Created by the students of JDCHS's Advanced Drama class.

Describes the experiences of families separated at the border through stripping away flesh to reach the cores of what we can all agree make us human. Families are being pulled apart but are often disregarded by their language and skin color, but through visual symbols one can step back to and discuss their own understanding of immigration.

Mi Hermana Lili

Sometimes my art process is as messy as biting into a mayonnaise slathered eloté. Sometimes, its as fastidious as the spaces in between the white picket fence of my childhood home. This painting titled Mi Hermana, Lili translates from Spanish as My Sister, Lili. My painting is part of a series that explores our shared experience as first-generation Chicanas growing up in America, and also highlights the fragility of culture due to assimilation. I collected different photos of Lili and fragmented them into collages on the canvas. I used a primitive landscape of Sonora, Mexico as the background to represent where our family originates. Cactuses in our Pascua Yaqui heritage are valued for their genetic survival, resiliency in extreme conditions, and inhabitance in desolate areas of the Sonora Desert. This motif symbolizes the resiliency of cultural expression by immigrants. Immigrants experience isolation in their new cultural environments, while also cultivating an opportunity to grow and establish their families. I borrowed colored pallets from Mexican American muralists to demonstrate the blending of these two cultures. However, in this painting, I intentionally confined the figure to the hard edges of the paint. The hard edges are borrowed from American Pop Art to further push the narrative of American consumerism and reproduction of culture. The hard edges represent American assimilation: the experience of having to let go of your culture to absorb the major culture you’re surrounded by, to become socially integrated. I highlight the unique topography of my sister’s Latina face, next to the topography of the landscape. The figure does not feel out of place within the environment, since they have the same painting language and color pallet, but the hard edges are creating a synthetic barrier between them. The windows of the figure demonstrate the idea of an individual being an apex of expression. There is a cultural phenomenon that can only be passed down by your familial culture. Familial culture is learned by enculturation, the happening in which an individual grasps cultural concepts that they are surrounded by. How you speak, your mannerisms, the way you tell stories, dancing, music, and more, can only be passed down organically. These are all transcendental forms of expression. Assimilation makes this apex smaller and smaller. I compare the song of an endangered species of bird, on the verge of extinction, to be as rare as indigenous Yaqui flute music. Once a culture is erased, these expressions will never be found on Earth again.

Breonna Taylor

On March 13th, Breonna Taylor's life was brutally taken by Louisville police who entered her home unannounced and shot her 8 times. These police have NOT faced any charges for their senseless act of violence. Breonna Taylor and her family deserve justice.

George Floyd

I collected newspaper articles for a few months to make this piece. Racism has existed LONG before George Floyd. In this senseless act of police violence, Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds while Floyd pleaded for his life. The other officers stood around and did nothing. This sparked protests around the world for justice and equality. This piece is not only a tribute to George Floyd, but it's also about what has happened since and what continues to happen- police violence, reform, racism, and black lives that have been brutally taken by police.

The Handshaker TM

The Handshaker TM is a device that allows one to network safely and effectively during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is an artificial hand mounted on an Extender TM that can reach up to 6 feet. The piece is satirical, commenting on the need to continue working “as usual” during a global pandemic.

No Place to Call Home

No Place to Call Home represents the clash of the artist’s Korean and American identities. It depicts a Korean hanbok, a traditional cultural dress, made of American flags. As an Korean-American, or any mixed race, you can often feel out of place in both cultures.

Hot Wheels

Named after the toy a mall Santa suggested when he heard a 5-year old boy ask for a Barbie, "Hot Wheels" is based on the shame boys with feminine interests feel when they are socialized to feel as such. A baby blue coffin is the final resting place for a collection of disfigured dolls, a mournful symbol of burying one's feelings to conform.