Your Food, My Work, Our Land
An ongoing collaboration with artist Oscar Lopez in support of California farmworkers
We are pleased to announce Haight Street Art Center's collaboration with artist Oscar Lopez on a project to engage the public in an investigation of food justice issues in California that will ultimately culminate in a mural-making, live screen printing pop-ups in community at Farmers Markets. This multi year project will also include art classes with youth in our print studio that will focus on print-making technique and mural concepts, visits to farms, and interviews with farmworkers.
Lopez turned to farm workers during the pandemic shutdowns of 2020, as the country focused on those “essential” workers who would still need to perform their jobs outside the home. These front line and back of house workers rarely commanded high salaries or social prestige, yet society could not proceed without them. Lopez thought too of his grandfather, a farm worker under the Bracero Program (1942–1964), originally a World War II-era initiative to provide legal if short-term contracts for Mexican laborers. Your Food, My Work, Our Land asks us to see these essential individuals whose necessary work renders them invisible, like the infrastructure we use but take for granted every day.
“These hardworking individuals are the backbone of our communities, yet we so rarely appreciate their labor, acknowledge their existence, or even see their faces,” says Lopez. “With this new version of the work, I want to elevate their stories and honor the vital role they play in sustaining all of us.”
Check out Oscar's new mural at Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture!
Exhibition Details:
On view: May 30, 2024 through January 2025
Open: Visible daily at all times
Public Art Corridor, Outdoors Between Landmark Buildings B & C
Free Admission
Oscar Lopez brings his Your Food, My Work, Our Land, originally a screen-printed poster of laborers toiling under a dominant sun, to Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture as the latest mural commission for the public art corridor between Landmark Buildings B and C.
Live screen printing pop-ups with Oscar Lopez:
Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, July 13th, 2024
Fort Mason Center Farmers Market, June 9th, 2024
Watch Oscar talk about his project here!
Summer 2024: Our partner ARTivate and their teens participated in a project Oscar Lopez and his investigation of food justice in the project Your Food, My Work, Our Land in support of California farmworkers. Ten teen interns and their artist mentors all made prints for this incredible project, researching historical farm worker posters and Oscar's work at Fort Mason to create thoughtful posters in solidarity with the workers at local farms and food justice in general.
Thank you to our partners and sponsors for their support of this three year project