San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 3rd Street, San Francisco CA
2020
Assisted by Priya Handa and Lisa Max
With a primary focus on healing and resistance, we aim to help heal society, ourselves, our loved ones. We have always been fascinated with methods of healing generational and current trauma through visual art, and this continues to be our goal with every project. This is also a personal piece for us because we aim to help heal one of the two of us. Twin one, Marina Perez-Wong was diagnosed less than a year ago with stage four metastatic breast cancer. She has already undergone some of the strongest chemotherapy and will have more rounds followed by surgeries and radiation later this year.
We have both been trained and artistically raised by Susan Cervantes, co-founder and head of Precita Eyes Muralists. She inspired us to paint our version of a mandala. Because she is our “art mom” and we have recently been motivated by the concept of mothers, we felt that it was only fitting in helping to heal. The recent (but also unfortunately incredibly historic) events that have happened in relation to the murder of George Floyd and other people of color has sparked a need for change. It is quoted somewhere that when George Floyd called out to his mother, he called out to all mothers. Historically women and mothers are disrespected, neglected and/ or abused. We call earth our mother and society continue to destroy her. He couldn’t breathe and we are in a state of crisis due to COVID, especially so for people with respiratory problems.
The central focus of our design consists of a Sakura Tree reflective of healthy lungs. Sakura trees are associated with the heart chakra and its properties use feminine energy to bring healing and love. The idea of a tree also relates to a hidden chakra located underneath the heart chakra called the Hrit chakra (Wish Fulfilling Tree). It symbolizes the ability to manifest what one wishes to happen in the world.
The 7 young women depicted in the mural are our future leaders and their joy is the ultimate act of resistance. Four are from the Radical Monarchs and three are students from the Oakland School from the Arts. They are dancing on water over sunken colonizer ships, border walls, I.C.E and monuments that have been thrown into lakes and rivers that represent the dismantling of patriarchy and white supremacy. They are not just surviving but thriving and they are their ancestors’ wildest dreams.
Behind the tree is circular vibrating energy painted in shades of green with stencil designs lining each vibration. We wanted to find a way to include women artists from our community (Cece Carpio, Nancy Pili, Priya Handa and Lisa Max) that inspire us and who also create movement related activist work. Each woman created a stencil with a symbol that represents their own personal healing medicine. Using those stencils, we overlapped them to create texture and movement in the background. Women support one another in many ways, and we hope this collective feminine energy will activate healing in our community and in the people that experience the mural.
The tree’s roots grow throughout the bottom of the wall creating balance and stability. Milagros are scattered on the tree. Milagros are traditionally left on shrines in Mexico when a prayer or calling has been answered. We are using them in the contemporary context of assisting in the healing of specific ailments or particular needs or desires.
Cherry Blossoms flow throughout the mural symbolizing our dreams and wishes coming to life.
We have been inspired by chakras and mandalas as a method to learn more about ourselves and how to find balance in our physical and spiritual lives. Chakras are centers of consciousness and life energy in the body. Our mural focuses on the heart (Anahata) and the root (Muladhara) chakras.
The Heart Chakra is located in the central place of the chakra system. It is the center of love and can heal and transform the physical energies into spiritual energies and vice versa. It also is an air element associated with lungs, breasts and thymus which oversees regulating the immune system. We were drawn to the Heart Chakra because of the imbalance in our world right now, Covid, war, pollution, and violence. We wish to channel the heart chakra to restore balance in Mother Earth and our own physical bodies while opening the hearts of hate to love.
The Root Chakra’s energy is based on the earth element and located in the pelvic floor, base of the spine and is associated with the feeling of grounding and safety. If we want to balance the heart chakra we must also balance the root chakra.