ARTIFACTS

The exhibition will be open May 17 - June 8, 2019

The art students of Oakland High School and teacher Rumi Koshino have made clay figures representing personal and culturally significant objects in their lives. Bay Area ceramic artist Cathy Lu helped teach and inspire the class to create these ceramic replicas. Each object is paired with a description of what makes the "artifact" meaningful and memorable. Some students write about cultural objects that remind them of the country that they were born in, or that their family is from. Some students write about gifts that they were given or belongings that were passed down to them. Some students made replicas of their favorite foods, a concha, a chocolate birthday cake, a plate of fruit. A group of flags hang on the wall, including Guatemala, El Salvador, and the U.S. flag. More everyday objects like skate boards, a landline phone, a sketchbook, a portable speaker, all hold unique and sometimes unexpected meaning to the students who made them.

Cathy Lu describes her work to be influenced by "ideas of cultural ‘authenticity’ and ‘tradition’ interface with contemporary trans-cultural experiences." In her practice she alters 'traditionally' Chinese objects to create a dialogue about the expanse that cultural experience can look like which surpasses the structures of ideally authentic or traditional. Each student's artifact represents the variety of an experience, even if an object repeats no student's story is the same.