WE’ave The People  2020

Performance ritual actions and newspaper document created in my graduate fine art workshop, Of, By and With People, in the fall of 2020, when classes were online at California College of the Arts. 

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WE’ave The People is a collection of 12 ritual actions performed synchronously between the hours of 3-8 pm in San Francisco, 10 am-3 pm in Sydney, and 5-9 pm in Bogota on Election Day, November 3, 2020, by graduate students in Fine Art, Architecture, and Design at California College for the Arts.

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Leonardo Barrera, Sarah Chieko Bonnickson, Xinran Dongfang, Rossie, Carlos Medellín, Rachel Parish, Nivedita Rajendra, Miguel Sarabia, Consuelo Tupper Hernandez, Jasmin Viducic, Jianyou Zhang and Mia Zhou.

 

Rituals hold space for grief, loss, protest, de-escalation, love, gratitude, and direct action. In cultural and sacred space, we connect to the past and the future. WE’ave The People imagines ways to reclaim our civic lives through ethical actions, collaboration, play, and transformative justice - tracking ways of being with and for each other and the living world around us.

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“November 3rd, 2020 WE’aves meaning into the ritual as it marks the fruits of collective action and the potential for more responsible leadership. One that does not deny the climate crisis. In reckoning with the outcomes of Election Day, Within the Rock Pools of North Bondi offers an alternative way of breathing, attuning, and moving. It offers a reminder that the scope of our social body is much broader and deeper than normally acknowledged – and that the very personal rituals of naming, thanking, and listening are, in fact, deeply political.” Niv Rajendra

 

Special thanks to Sarah Bonnickson for design and project support, and a grant from Creative Citizens in Action at CCA.​​​

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