San Francisco, 2012
A long history of violence, both real and imagined, has hung over San Francisco’s John McLaren Park, almost since its inception in 1934.
Dreams at the City Limits investigates this history through research into the past and photographs of the present. I examine the facts, fictions, and mythologies that form the story of the park and the community at its borders.
Presented in the Peripheries, group show, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, California.
Photography & Mixed media, Sizes Vary
McLaren Park is my park, I go there every day with my dog. Concerned locals and even new-to-the-city transplants have warned me about the park. Their stories are vague on details and often end in violence. Mythical urban tales that don’t feel too far-fetched when the sun starts to set and fog rolls in.
Research on the park brought me to the death of young Rickey Howard. His death seems so senseless. The saddest type of death – a teenager, a child – bursting with potential. So poor, he didn’t get a headstone. His truth is sadder than any of these fictions.
Below, Raelyn Ruppel, myself and John Steck Jr. at the exhibition.
