FENCELINES: A Collective Monument to Resilience
FENCELINES: A Collective Monument to Resilience
Exhibition: April 5 – June 3, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 15, 12pm-2pm | More info…
Earth Day / Fencelines Installation: Saturday, April 22, 10am-4pm | More info…
Spring Family Day: Saturday, April 29, 12pm-3pm | More info…
NEW EVENT Community Forum – Response to Stolen Artwork: Saturday, June 3, 12pm-2pm | More info…
Closing Reception: Saturday, June 3, 2pm-4pm | More info…
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm
Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
Fencelines is a community-based participatory art project that invites local folk to reflect on the circumstances of environmental injustice in Richmond, CA. This exhibition presents messages by individual community members responding to the refinery landscape in Richmond, together making up a kind of collective monument. Centered around portraits of community participants, the show aims to amplify the work of local environmental justice organizations and provide opportunities for visitor participation and discourse.
Central to the Fencelines project is a public art installation along a city-owned fence bordering the Chevron refinery and the North Richmond residential neighborhood immediately downwind of it. Painted slats will be installed along the fence, topped with ribbons to animate the direction of the wind. Designed to amplify the voices of the local community, the project team have been offering painted fence slats for community members to inscribe their stories and messages through a series of workshops held at Richmond Art Center and during neighborhood events beginning in Summer 2022. These words and messages are the heart of this work, documenting the impact of the petroleum industry on many lives, and together forming a collective monument to resilience.
“We are here, we want to be seen, and we are lending our hand to make all of these initiatives work to end pollution of our communities.”
–Princess Robinson, Community Organizer and Fencelines Project Co-Creator
Co-created by Graham L.P., Princess Robinson, Gita Khandagle, and members of the Richmond Community
The Fencelines team is made up of local artists and organizers, inviting participation from community members and working in partnership with the Richmond Our Power Coalition to envision a just and regenerative future.
—
This project is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency.
