Jul 12, 2024
In 2022, the Presidio Trust
asked Favianna Rodriguez to be an
activator, as the trust was preparing to open its Tunnel Tops park.
Favianna recommended that the folks building the park employ color
and visual art to transform the space. They were supportive of her
ideas. And with that, Ancestral Futurism was born.
Favianna grew up in Oakland
next to the 880 freeway, where she still lives today. The area
around that major thoroughfare is one of the most polluted
corridors in the state. Because she comes from an area subject to
what she refers to as "environmental racism," she sought to make a
statement in the northwest corner of The City. "Ancestral Futurism"
was a phrase that perfectly summed up her goal: "We cannot repair
the present until we acknowledge the harm of the
past."
The land where Spanish
colonizers established the Presidio was already inhabited by Native
people, of course. Those people lost their land to the Europeans.
They were murdered, pushed out, disenfranchised. For Favianna, the
space is now one where we can talk about that.
Tosha
Stimage was born in rural Mississippi. College got
her out of The South and to Ohio, where she studied art and design.
After graduation, she spent a bit of time in Colorado, where she
worked with kids doing art therapy. Then grad school brought her to
the Bay Area: She started at CCA in 2012.
She's been an artist since she
was a kid, and that didn't change after grad school. One of the
ways that art manifests for Tosha is in flower arranging. She had a
shop in Oakland, but was forced out by gentrification. Now, she's
got her shop, Saint
Flora, back open for business in The City as part of
SF's Vacant to Vibrant program.
After the unveiling of
Ancestral Futurism, Favianna and others realized that they needed
to make it an annual event and bring in other artists. They also
decided that it was important to honor native plants and animals
along with the native humans of the area. For this year's
iteration, Favianna invited Tosha to add her own
interpretation to the ongoing project.
After she was selected, Tosha
started visiting the park, meeting people, and doing her homework.
She began to notice the intention and care that went into plant
programs already going in the Presidio. Right away, she felt it was
something she wanted to be part of.
Tosha gave her contribution the
name "Superblooms" in part to honor that natural phenomenon. It
also speaks to the resilience of the plants she chose to include in
her art—checker bloom, Chilean strawberry, and California poppy.
All are beautiful, of course, but they all have histories in the
Bay Area.
This Sunday, July 14, from 12
to 3 p.m., Tunnel Tops will host a launch party for Tosha's
Superblooms. Activities that day include: an art unveiling with
Tosha, hands-on art activities for all ages, a living floral
Installation, free plant starters, DJ sets, and a show and tell
with the Presidio Nursery. Attendance is free. For more info, visit
the Presidio
Trust site.
We recorded this podcast at
Tunnel Tops park in June 2024.
Photography by Felipe
Romero