Living half of my life in San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) public housing, I have seen first hand the bureaucracy and social politics that can thrive within low-income housing systems. For the past two years I have not lived in public housing and this has given me the distance to start pulling together the different layers that make up this institution. Personally experiencing both good intentions and unethical treatment as a resident, many questions arose during my project. I have chosen form of the jigsaw puzzle because like public housing it can seem very simple and complex depending on how you decide to “solve” the puzzle.
This exhibition is most importantly a point of departure for my work; I have realized that I am enmeshed with the experience of living in this institution and hope to create a greater awareness about the social implications for those not personally tied to it.
Inspiration:
Talk by Rick Lowe, On Project Row House Project,
Rick Lowe has given new meaning to the phrase "artist-in-residence." This Heinz Award winner and former Loeb fellow at the Harvard School of Design is the founder of Project Row Houses, an organization that merges art and architecture with social activism. In an audio interview with Globeshakers host Tim Zak, Lowe describes how this experiment in "social sculpture" is redefining the role of art and artists in society.
