Botanica “La Mirada”, a research based project developed during my art residency at the Monterey Museum of Art La Mirada, combines traditional herbalism, social critique and personal cartography.

Inspired in the syncretic folk medicine and spiritual traditions of Spanish and Indian cultures, this art project offers an alternative way of looking at issues of colonization, power dynamics and cultural assimilation. 

Having the city of Monterey as the background, I embarked on a pilgrimage to map gardens from the Spanish and Mexican period, incorporating native, invasive and naturalized plants into herbal remedies that will be shared with the public.

This project is informed not only by historic data, but it also incorporates myths and legends that shaped the history of Monterey, from its past forms of colonialism to the present ones.
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DISCLAIMER: The medicines in this project are all made with natural ingredients grown in Monterey, California. They carry all the healing properties attributed by ancestral knowledge. However, they don’t intend to offer any solution to current health care problems but a playful 
way to reclaim herbalism as a form of institutional critique and resistance towards our capitalistic culture.

 
Parallel to my exhibition at the Monterey Museum of Art, I'll be an Artist-In-Residence at the MMA La Mirada during the month of September.

Herbs have been used for thousands of years, both medicinally and ritually. In pagan and popular traditions around the world, the use of herbs is linked to ritual practice.  With the rise of new age spirituality in a skeptical world, we are overwhelmed by the revival of potions, remedies, amulets and spells with the desire of feeling more connected with the natural world.

I grew up in a part of Spain where popular culture associated certain plants with specific purposes, specially around pagan celebrations like Solstice or Samhain. This special interest in medicinal plants has taken me to participate a few times at the Northern California Herbal Symposium since I came to California in 2004. I am aware of the healing power of plants and also the role that traditionally they have played in ritual practice.

Through my residency at La Mirada, I’d like to explore the relationship between plants, ritual practices and this new global culture. I plan to do a research first about te healing properties of the plants that grow in the garden and other urban areas. Using the New Age metaphysical format I will use La Mirada as a platform where I will be able to research, experiment and create customize recipes, elixirs, and incorporate them into daily rituals.  This work will be site-specific, meaning that it will be inspired by the stories of Monterey Bay and it’s people.

The art residency will culminate with a ritual/celebration around the Fall Equinox on September 22 with the participation of the local community. 

I was honored to be invited to create a site-specific installation for the entrance of stARTup Art Fair at Hotel del Sol. During three days, the Hotel gets transformed into a pop-up venue featuring independent artists, non-profit art organizations, art panels, etc. 

As part of Special Projects, I transformed the sidewalk and entryway of the hotel into an inviting environment, creating a path that leads the public from the street to the hotel courtyard. Using recycled hotel carpets I designed a repetitive pattern that extends from the floor to the wall evoking an arabesque motive.

On it's fourth year, stARTup has become a destination event, attracting artists, art industry leaders, and art collectors from across the U.S. and beyond.

Learn more about stARTup Art Fair here

Ramon's Tailor Gallery
628 Jones Street @Geary
The Tenderloin, San Francisco

December 7, 2017 - February 1, 2018

Opening Reception and First Thursdays Art Walk: Thursday Dec 7, 2017, 6 - 10 pm
Closing Reception and First Thursdays Art Walk: Thursday February 1, 2018, 6 - 10 pm


Alhambra S.R.O. is a multidisciplinary art project that consists of a site-specific installation and a gastronomical experience drawn from a local immigrant community of the Tenderloin in San Francisco. This project not only playfully engages with the architectural features of the gallery but also comments upon the cultural and social dynamics of this neighborhood.

Inspired by the landmark “Alhambra Apartments” on Geary St, I call attention to the irony of the cultural appropriation of Arabic architecture in the early 20th century and the contemporary stigmatization of islamic people in what is perhaps the most culturally diverse neighborhood in San Francisco.
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The “Alhambra Apartments” is among several buildings in the Tenderloin that are categorized as a Moorish Revival Style of architecture. This exotic style  flourished after the 1906 earthquake, when the formerly residential neighborhood of single family homes was rebuilt as multistory buildings often with dramatic facades of the Exotic Revival style. Many of these buildings have become S.R.O. (Single Occupancy Room) Hotels.​

Learn more about Tomas Marconi phd here

Daily Slots, the guerrilla art project in collaboration with Eliza Barrios, will be featured at the Luggage Store Gallery's next exhibition. Addressing artist who have to navigate or break the law in order to express themselves, this upcoming show called ILLEGAL opens this coming Friday.

Daily Slots is an ongoing project that reflects the issues that affect our city. Using the newspaper stands located along Market, Montgomery Street and Civic Center Plaza as “vehicles to deliver information”, my collaborator and I send messages through the windows of these structures. Altering the visual landscape of the pedestrian/urban environment, the messages are a mixture of iconography and slogans that call attention to the economy, consumerism and un-sustainability of the capitalistic culture. 

ILLEGAL
The Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco
Nov 10 - Dec 16, 2017

Opening, Friday Nov 10, 6 - 9pm
(music performance by Tropical City)

Remembrance and Resistance
SOMArts Annual Day of the Dead Exhibition
October 6 - November 9, 2017
SOMArts
934 Brannan St, San Francisco, CA

Tejiendo la Vida de un Maya" ("Threading the Life of a Mayan") is the title of an altar in collaboration with Adriana Camarena and Jose Gongora Pat honoring the life of his brother Luis, killed by the SFPD in 2016. Both Luis and Jose are from a small village in Yucatan, Mexico. Women in their village have carried for generations the tradition of working with embroidery and textiles. Using the dichotomy text/textile, both with same origin, we used hand dyed threads to weave Luis' story, from his origins in Yucatan to his life as an immigrant in San Francisco. This non-traditional altar uses textile as the silent voice, as a metaphor for repressed or untold stories.

Adriana Camarena is a Mission District writer and researcher focused on social justice. More information about her work here