Elizabeth Sisco

Last updated

Elizabeth Sisco (born 1954 in Cheverly, Maryland, United States) is an artist active in the Chicano art movement.

Contents

Biography

She moved to San Diego as an adult and has created art there since. [1] [2]

Art

Sisco creates art about immigration, tourism, and citizenship, particularly about the Chicano experience in the United States and life on the border between San Diego and California. [1] Her work is held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Nelson Atkins Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and other museums. She has also published works in journals. [3]

Beginning in 1978, she started a documentary photography project about life and immigration along the border. [4] [5]

In 1991, Sisco staged a protest when part of her work that criticized American tourists was removed from the exhibition "Los Vecinos/The Neighbors" at the Tijuana Cultural Center. [6] The artwork "Double Vision," which depicts American tourists who get photographed with donkeys on the streets of Tijuana, was reinstalled in its entirety. [6] [7]

"Welcome to America’s Finest Tourist Plantation" (1988)

Sisco's most famous work, "Welcome to America’s Finest Tourist Plantation," was a screen print collaboration with David Avalos and Louis Hock. [8] [9] It depicts hands scraping food from a plate, hands in handcuffs near a gun, and a hand, with towels folded over the arm, knocking on a hotel room door. [8] The three artists describe the work as addressing "the role of undocumented workers in San Diego's tourist-based economy." [10]

“Welcome to America’s Finest Tourist Plantation" appears in red across the center of the print. [8] "America's Finest City" was a slogan created by Mayor Pete Wilson after San Diego was rejected as the site of the 1972 Republican National Convention; Wilson declared that the week of the convention would be "America's Finest City Week." [11] When "Plantation" replaces "City," one scholar notes that this "suggest[s] a slave economy that fuels the city's growth." [12]

In January 1988, the three displayed 100 copies of poster in the advertisement space on public buses in San Diego, while the city was hosting Super Bowl XXII, sparking controversy. [13] [14] [15] [2] [16] Part of the controversy came from the fact that the artists used a city grant. [2] [17]

Sisco herself said of the project:

It is no secret to anyone living in San Diego that the tourist industry employs undocumented labor, but to circulate this fact at the time when San Diego was gearing up to host the Super Bowl was blasphemous ... The back of the buses became a wonderful mobile gallery, a mobile wall to move our art throughout the community. And that mobility moved from the back of the buses into the press, onto the television, onto the beaches where surfers debated the project, and into elementary schools and college classrooms. [2]

As one journalist noted, "The artists set out to publicize the plight of undocumented migrant workers, and they used the theater of the real world very effectively to achieve that goal. ... Art’s right to free expression prevailed, even at the risk of alienating Super Bowl patrons and losing tourist dollars." [14]

The project developed further into several billboards, ads, and mixed media installations documenting the work. [18] [19]

In 1989, the three artists created a billboard with a similar slogan. [20] It showed Martin Luther King Jr. and asked "Welcome to America's finest a) city b) tourist plantation c) Convention Center." [21] The San Diego City Council declined to rename the city's convention center after King. [21] This was funded by a grant from the Installation Gallery; the San Diego City Council then denied the gallery tax funds, but restored some of the funds after community pressure. [20] It sparked controversy on a national scale because it used money from federal grants, including an National Endownment of the Arts (NEA) grant, to purchase commercial advertising for political purposes. [22] [23] The NEA decided that the work did not contravene the terms of the grant. [23]

In 1990, the three bought ads on bus benches about police brutality, with the question "AMERICA'S FINEST?" [2]

"Art Rebate/Arte Reembolso" (1993)

In 1993, Sisco, David Avalos and Louis Hock created the installation artwork "Art Rebate/Arte Reembolso." [24] In the installation, Sisco, Avalos, and Hock handed out ten-dollar bills from a NEA grant to, in the artists' words, "undocumented taxpayers" in North San Diego County. [24] [25] The work was commissioned for the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and Centro Cultural de la Raza. [2] [26]

Selected works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicano Park</span> Park in San Diego, California

Chicano Park is a 32,000 square meter park located beneath the San Diego–Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan, a predominantly Chicano or Mexican American and Mexican-migrant community in central San Diego, California. The park is home to the country's largest collection of outdoor murals, as well as various sculptures, earthworks, and an architectural piece dedicated to the cultural heritage of the community. Because of the magnitude and historical significance of the murals, the park was designated an official historic site by the San Diego Historical Site Board in 1980, and its murals were officially recognized as public art by the San Diego Public Advisory Board in 1987. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 owing to its association with the Chicano Movement, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2016. Chicano Park, like Berkeley's People's Park, was the result of a militant people's land takeover. Every year on April 22, the community celebrates the anniversary of the park's takeover with a celebration called Chicano Park Day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centro Cultural de la Raza</span> Non-profit organization

The Centro Cultural de la Raza is a non-profit organization with the specific mission to create, preserve, promote and educate about Chicano, Mexicano, Native American and Latino art and culture. It is located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California.The cultural center supports and encourages the creative expression “of the indigenous cultures of the Americas.” It is currently a member of the American Alliance of Museums.

Gilbert "Magu" Luján was a well known and influential Chicano sculptor, muralist and painter. He founded the famous Chicano collective Los Four that consisted of artists Carlos Almaraz, Beto de la Rocha, Frank Romero and himself. In 1974, Judithe Hernández became the "fifth" and only female member of Los Four.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yolanda López</span> Mexican-American painter and activist (1942–2021)

Yolanda Margarita López was an American painter, printmaker, educator, and film producer. She was known for her Chicana feminist works focusing on the experiences of Mexican-American women, often challenging the ethnic stereotypes associated with them. Lopez was recognized for her series of paintings which re-imagined the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe. Her work is held in several public collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alurista</span> American poet and activist

Alberto Baltazar Urista Heredia, better known by his nom de plume Alurista, is an American poet and activist. His work was influential in the Chicano Movement and is important to the field of Chicano poetry.

Rubén Ortiz Torres is a Mexican photographer, painter, sculptor, film and video producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ford Building (San Diego)</span> United States historic place

The Ford Building, a Streamline Moderne structure in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, serves as the home of the San Diego Air & Space Museum. The building was built by the Ford Motor Company for the California Pacific International Exposition, which was held in 1935 and 1936. The Ford Motor Company built a total of five exposition buildings for the world's fairs. This is the last remaining structure.

La Raza are the people of the Hispanic and Chicano world.

Salvador Roberto Torres is a Chicano artist and muralist and an early exponent of the Chicano art movement. He was one of the creators of Chicano Park, and led the movement to create its freeway-pillar murals. He was also a founder of the Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judithe Hernández</span> American Chicana artist

Judithe Hernández is an American artist and educator, she is known as a muralist, pastel artist, and painter. She is a pioneer of the Chicano art movement and a former member of the art collective Los Four. She is based in Los Angeles, California and previously lived in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicano art movement</span> Movements by Mexican-American artists

The Chicano Art Movement represents groundbreaking movements by Mexican-American artists to establish a unique artistic identity in the United States. Much of the art and the artists creating Chicano Art were heavily influenced by Chicano Movement which began in the 1960s.

Guillermo Acevedo (1920-1988) was a Peruvian-born artist and master draftsman, most famous in the United States for his striking portrayal of Native Americans of the Southwest, and for his ability to capture and help preserve the disappearing architectural styles of old neighborhoods throughout the U.S. and abroad. Known to be an artist-observer with great sensitivity, Acevedo is recognized as a master at recording the human condition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natalia Anciso</span> Chicana-Tejana visual artist

Natalia Anciso is an American Chicana-Tejana contemporary artist and educator. Her artwork focuses primarily on issues involving Identity, especially as it pertains to her experiences growing up along the U.S.-Mexico Border, via visual art and installation art. Her more recent work covers topics related to education, human rights, and social justice, which is informed by her experience as an urban educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a native of the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas and currently lives and works in Oakland, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Hock</span> American artist and filmmaker

Louis Hock is an American artist and independent filmmaker who works in film, video, installation and interventions in public space. His work has been exhibited both internationally and nationally including most notably at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles as part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980. Several of his films are in the collection of Video Data Bank. Louis Hock currently holds the title of Professor Emeritus at University of California - San Diego. He has additionally collaborated on several public art projects with Elizabeth Sisco and David Avalos.

Victor Ochoa is an activist, painter, graphic designer and master muralist. He has painted over 100 murals, many of them in San Diego, California. He is considered one of the pioneers of San Diego's Chicano art movement. Ochoa was one of the original activists at Chicano Park and a co-founder of Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park, both in San Diego. He helped establish the influential Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronteriza (BAW/TAF). Ochoa is also a teacher of art and Chicano heritage. His work has been shown nationally and internationally, including at the Venice Bi-Annual, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego and in the groundbreaking exhibition, Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation (CARA). In addition to creating his own work, he is also a master of art preservation techniques, especially relating to murals. He is considered to be a "serious cultural resource in the border region.

Sonia Amalia Romero is an American artist, she is known for her printmaking, mixed media linocut prints, murals, and public art based in Los Angeles. She is known for depicting Los Angeles, Latin American imagery, and Chicano themes in her work.

Herbert Siguenza is an American actor, writer, visual artist, and performer based in California. He is best known for co-founding the theater performance group Culture Clash, which is still active since its founding in 1984, more than thirty years later. He is currently the playwright-in-residence at the San Diego Rep and has continued to pursue many solo ventures in addition to his group work.

Josephine "Josie" Talamantez is a historian from San Diego, California. She co-founded Chicano Park in 1970 and helped develop it into a cultural National Historic Landmark containing the largest collection of artistic murals in the United States. Talamantez was also the Chief of Programs for the California Arts Council, served as the director of the Centro Cultural de la Raza, and was on the board of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture.

ChismeArte was an avant-garde Chicano magazine published by the LA Latino Writers Association (LALWA) and produced by the Concilio de Arte Popular, a California statewide arts advocacy group of Chicano arts organizations headed by Manazar Gamboa. The magazine began publication in 1976. It was produced by Guillermo Bejarano in the early 1980s. Manazar Gamboa served as Director of LALWA and Editor of ChismeArte from 1981-1983. Organizational members of the People's Art Council included The Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista, The Royal Chicano Air Force in Sacramento, Mechicano Art Center in Los Angeles, and The Galeria de la Raza and The Mexican Museum in San Francisco, and The Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index of articles related to Mexican Americans</span>

A Mexican American is a resident of the United States who is of Mexican descent. Mexican American-related topics include the following:

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lu, Brittney (September 29, 2016). "The Uses of Photography: Art, Politics and the Reinvention of a Medium". UCSD Guardian. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Simonds, Cylena (2019), González, Jennifer A.; Chavoya, C. Ondine; Noriega, Chon; Romo, Terezita (eds.), "Public Audit: An Interview with Elizabeth Sisco, Louis Hock, and David Avalos", Chicano and Chicana Art, Duke University Press, pp. 319–330, doi:10.1215/9781478003403-044, ISBN   978-1-4780-0340-3, S2CID   239340002 , retrieved December 11, 2020
  3. ↑ Sisco, Elizabeth (June 2006). "Good neighbors" . Rethinking Marxism. 12 (2): 35–42. doi:10.1080/08935690009359000. ISSN   0893-5696. S2CID   219716379 – via TandF Online.
  4. ↑ Sisco, Elizabeth (1986). Family Preparing to Run the Border (Gelatin silver print (photograph)).
  5. 1 2 Breslaw, Cathy (March 4, 2017). "Making Communities: Art and the Border". Vanguard Culture. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 Freudenheim, Susan (May 7, 1991). "Artist's Work Reinstalled at Tijuana Cultural Center". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  7. ↑ Satellite intelligence : new art from Boston and San Diego. La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art., MIT List Visual Arts Center. La Jolla, Calif.: La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. 1990. pp. 30–31. ISBN   0-934418-35-7. OCLC   22179452.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. 1 2 3 4 David Avalos, Louis Hock, and Elizabeth Sisco, Welcome to America's Finest Tourist Plantation, 1988. Screenprint on vinyl mounted on foam board, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. Alfred S. Pagano and Susan A. Tyler, 2015.37.
  9. ↑ "Welcome to America's Finest Tourist Plantation | LACMA Collections". LACMA. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  10. ↑ Small, Deborah; Sisco, Elizabeth; Hock, Louis; Avalos, David (Summer 1990). "Public Art at Work: Democracy Untested is Democracy Denied". Exposure, the Journal of the Society of Photographic Education. 27 (3).
  11. ↑ Ancona, Vincent S. (Fall 1992). "When the elephants marched out of San Diego: The 1972 Republican Convention Fiasco". Journal of San Diego History. 38 (4).
  12. ↑ Reynoza, Tatiana (2020). "War at Home: Conceptual Iconoclasm in American Printmaking". ¡Printing the revolution! : the rise and impact of Chicano graphics, 1965 to now. Ramos, E. Carmen,, Reinoza, Tatiana,, Romo, Terecita,, Zapata, Claudia E. (Claudia Elisa),, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 116. ISBN   978-0-691-21080-3. OCLC   1159633248.
  13. ↑ Harper, Hilliard (January 9, 1988). "Officials Would Give Poster One-Way Bus Ride: 'Art' No Tourism Ticket, San Diego Says". Los Angeles Times. p. 34.
  14. 1 2 3 Freudenheim, Susan (1988). "San Diego: David Avalos, Louis Hock, and Elizabeth Sisco: San Diego Transport Corporation Buses". Artforum.
  15. 1 2 Sisco, E., Hock, L., & Avalos, D. (1991). Welcome to America's finest tourist plantation.
  16. ↑ Finkelpearl, Tom. (2000). "On Welcome to America's Finest Tourist Plantation / David Avilos, Louis Hock and Elizabeth Sisco". Dialogues in public art : interviews with Vito Acconci, John Ahearn ... Acconci, Vito, 1940–2017. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN   978-0-262-27266-7. OCLC   45728232.
  17. ↑ Chicano art : resistance and affirmation, 1965–1985. Griswold del Castillo, Richard., McKenna, Teresa., Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne., Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery., CARA National Advisory Committee. Los Angeles: Wight Art Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles. 1991. pp. 190–191. ISBN   0-943739-16-0. OCLC   22861959.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  18. ↑ Chavoya, C. Ondine (1993). "Collaborative public art and multimedia installation : David Avalos, Louis Hock, Elizabeth Sisco's Welcome to America's finest tourist plantation". La Frontera = The border : art about the Mexico/United States border experience. Chávez, Patricio., Grynsztejn, Madeleine., Kanjo, Kathryn., Centro Cultural de la Raza (San Diego, Calif.), Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. San Diego: Centro Cultural de la Raza. pp. 208–227. ISBN   0-934418-41-1. OCLC   28916725.
  19. 1 2 "Art Rebate/Arte Reembolso | LACMA Collections". LACMA. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  20. 1 2 Ollman, Leah (August 29, 1989). "Artists Have 'No Stomach' for Censorship". Los Angeles Times. p. J1E.
  21. 1 2 Hilliard, Harper (April 13, 1989). "Billboard Offers Viewers a Choice on Controversy Over King Tribute". Los Angeles Times. p. J3A.
  22. ↑ Muchnic, Suzanne (March 8, 1988). "A Gallery All Torn Up Over Its 10th Birthday". Los Angeles Times. p. H1.
  23. 1 2 Granberry, Michelle (August 15, 1991). "NEA Finds S.D. Protest in Bounds". Los Angeles Times. p. SDB2.
  24. 1 2 Mydans, Seth (August 12, 1993). "Art Dollars for Me, $10 for You, $10 for You (Published 1993)". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  25. ↑ Sisco, Elizabeth; Hock, Louis; Avalos, David (August 23, 1993). "Art Rebate: Between a Rock and Hard Cash". Los Angeles Times. p. OCF5.
  26. ↑ La Frontera = The border : art about the Mexico/United States border experience. Chávez, Patricio., Grynsztejn, Madeleine., Kanjo, Kathryn., Centro Cultural de la Raza (San Diego, Calif.), Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. San Diego: Centro Cultural de la Raza. 1993. ISBN   0-934418-41-1. OCLC   28916725.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  27. ↑ "¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now | Smithsonian American Art Museum". Smithsonian Museum of American Art. 2020. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
  28. ↑ "Art Rebate/Arte Reembolso was commissioned as part of the traveling exhibition La Frontera/The Border, Art about the Mexico/United States Border Experience sponsored by the Centro Cultural de la Raza and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (MCA San Diego). Collaborative public art event at various locations throughout San Diego County. (Elizabeth Sisco, Louis Hock, David Avalos; July–September 1993). Courtesy of artists". Research Gate. July–September 1993. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.