UCSC Contemporary Print Media Research Center AiR | FACADES
1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Baskin Visual Art G-111
​FACADES , a suite of 11 intaglio/screenprint-hybrid prints, confronts histories of colonial shadows, suppression, and misinformation. The decision to combine silkscreen methods with intaglio emphasizes the need to give overlooked and suppressed stories a sense of permanence. This body of work is heavily inspired by and responds to contemporary campus suppression of free speech, particularly concerning marginalized voices and their right to challenge dominant narratives and systemic inequities. By layering techniques, the prints underscore the complexity of these silenced histories while asserting their undeniable presence and relevance in today's socio-political climate.
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Dates: Reception 11/4/2024, Exhibition 11/4/2025-11/15/2025
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Credits to Sarah Sanford, Professor at UCSC, for introducing me to this unique technique.
10.5'x8.25'
8.5'x9.5' The land on which this series was created is the unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma.
8.5'x9.25' In the evening of May 3, 1877 a mob of about 200 people in Santa Cruz forcibly took two Mexican Americans, Francisco Arias and José Chamales, out of their jail cells. Francisco Arias and José Chamales had admitted to committing a murder of a woman they robbed after being investigated on suspicion of the crime. The two men had just been arrested the same week that the mob decided to descend on them, to act out on their version of extra judicial justice, near the San Lorenzo bridge off
10.5'x8.5' Located at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, the School of the Americas (SOA) is a U.S. Army center that has trained more than sixty thousand soldiers and police, mostly from Latin America, in counterinsurgency and combat-related skills since it was founded in 1946. So widely documented is the participation of the School’s graduates in torture, murder, and political repression throughout Latin America that in 2001 the School officially changed its name to WHISC.
7.25'x6.25' 1st UCSC commencement disrupted by anti-war demonstrations and students give Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton (in prison) an honorary diploma. 12 Years later (1980), Newton graduates with a PhD from the History of Consciousness program. His thesis (later, a book) was entitled, “War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America.
10.5'x8.5'
14.5'x11.5' 'POLICE FROM UC SANTA CRUZ, UC SAN FRANCISCO, UC DAVIS, UC RIVERSIDE, AS WELL AS SAN JOSE, SAN BRUNO, SAN MATEO, DALY CITY, PACIFICA, SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, SANTA CLARA, WATSONVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT, THE SANTA CRUZ COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE, AND THE CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL ARE DEPLOYED AGAINST UCSC STUDENT ADVOCATING FOR PALESTINIAN LIBERATION AND THE UNIVERSITY DIVESTMENT FROM APARTHEID ISRAEL'
14'x10' Vice Chancellor and Campus Provost of UCSC, Lori Keltzer, walks her dog by student-protesters being arrested and brutalized by 10+ Police Departments across California. June 1st, 2024 Photo by Kyle Allemand.
17'x11.5'
17'x11.5' "LOOK AROUND THE WORLD TODAY, AND WE CAN SEE JUST HOW MUCH WE NEED THOUGHTFUL, EDUCATED , INFORMED VOICES TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT, TO PRESERVE FREE SPEECH, AND TO ADVANCE DIVERSITY OF ALL KINDS" "WE NEED THOSE VOICES TO PRESS FORWARD ON SOCIAL EQUALITY AND TO PUSH BACK AGAINST RACIAL INEQUITY. IT'S GOOD TO REMEMBER THAT CHANGE IS SOMETHING THAT IS HAPPENING HERE AND NOW ON OUR CAMPUS, Quote from Chancellor of UCSC, Cynthia Larive for UCSC Magazine, 2021.
11.5'x10.5' What happened at UCSC on May 30 2024 is not an isolated incident—it is part of a broader assault on student activism, political expression, and the right to protest. It is a reminder that even institutions claiming progressive values are capable of upholding and enacting systems of suppression. We remember this day not only as a moment of repression, but as a rupture that revealed the facades of institutional care. The consequences are ongoing, and the resistance endures.