If you’ve waited for a bus along Market Street at any point this year, you’ve likely noticed the 2018 Art on Market Street Poster Series, courtesy of the San Francisco Arts Commission, is dedicated to the theme of “sanctuary.” And if you somehow didn’t notice Miguel Arzabe, Rodney Ewing, Weston Teruya and, soon, Sofia Córdova’s posters, now you know where to look.
Over the past 11 months, the artists have addressed the subject in a variety of ways: Arzabe physically wove together posters from different political movements and cultural events in San Francisco history; Ewing layered official and unofficial pieces of documentation from immigrants’ life stories; and Teruya collaborated with Bay Area artists to create sculptural talismans that invoke moments of solidarity and intersectionality.
In conjunction with her forthcoming designs, on Monday, Nov. 26, starting at 7pm, Córdova and Matthew Gonzalez Kirkland (who collaborate musically under the moniker Xuxa Santamaria), perform a half-hour experimental score titled Song4Sanctuary in the cavernous rotunda of San Francisco’s City Hall.
Pulling from the popular music of immigrant diasporas that benefit from San Francisco’s sanctuary-city status, Xuxa Santamaria’s performance is complemented by movement from Oakland-based dancer Stephanie Hewett. Audio recorded from Bay Area radio stations include snippets of disk-jockey chatter, music and advertising, recreating and remixing the sonic space inhabited by various immigrant communities in the city’s most potent architectural symbol.
Fittingly, the event is free and open to all.
