Seeking Sanctuary

Seeking Sanctuary, 2021, collaboration with Sanctuary City Project, hand-painted naphthol crimson acrylic over screen prints on newsprint that were made by community members as part of Sanctuary Print Shop, 18 x 24”

From 2020 to 2021, I’ve had the privilege of partnering with Gallery 51 and Sanctuary City Project in a show called Hostile Terrain, also displaying the findings of the Undocumented Migration Project.

Our year-long+ endeavor resulted in meaningful conversations by we who express great concern for the immigrants, refugees, and detainees, whose hope for freedom hangs on the delicate threads of justice.

After months of planning, re-planning, and counter-planning due to upheaval caused by the pandemic, our works finally found each other in the gallery, integrating beautifully thanks to our persevering curator Erica Wall and Gallery 51 staff. I was astounded by the specific ways in which our work tied together so seamlessly in concept, aesthetic, and sensibility. We discussed the deconstruction of systems, of laws, and of complex issues, as illustrated by Sanctuary City Project’s disassembled words, UNDOCUMENTED UNAFRAID, that stamped themselves in enormously heavy, bold, black, capped text that spanned along the extended length of the southern wall (i.e., the southern border of the gallery).

Back in spring 2020, I visited Sergio at his home in San Francisco, during which he generously gave me sixteen Sanctuary City Project screen prints upon which to experiment for potential collaborative work for our show. But, within the disarray of 2020, I could not make sense of what these works were to become, and they were shelved for a year, rolled up neatly to stand among the rolls of canvas nestled in the corner of the studio. After simmering in the richness of our artist talk, I felt inspired to revisit them. Within hours, Vietnamese words began emerging from the English text.

While revisiting these posters, I thought about the people whose responses were inscribed upon these pages for all to witness. I wondered about their relationships to the ones who are at risk for deportation. I considered their fears and their courage, and the things they and their families might do to sustain the hopes that they have for a more equitable future. And I lamented for our Vietnamese American community members and our neighbors, who have known this country as sanctuary, but are now enduring their fight within the immigration system—these who face the threat of being sent back to the country from which they fled persecution, violence, and poverty.

Click on the thumbnails below and hover over the images to read the English translations of the Vietnamese text.

This collaboration led me to investigate further on my own:

Road Closed to Thru Traffic, 2021, enamel on found street sign, 36 x 24”.  

Ờ sẽ ra translates to Yes, we will come out.

While refugee families are facing closed borders, some are being sent back over the borders from which they fled poverty, violence, and persecution. In the call to freedom, we stand fast and march confidently forward in full faith that the innocent will be delivered unto victory.