Inside Out
Inside Out was a hybrid social practice and public art project in Richmond, CA. The project turned phrases submitted by Richmond residents into large scale video projection art on the six-story walls of Richmond’s City Hall. During a four-week submission period in 2019, 1,100 phrases were submitted by citizens who live or work in Richmond. 100 representative phrases were then turned into projections.
In a time when the word “wall” is being used as a threat against Americans of color by the U.S. government, the project was intended to be an intervention. Instead of using a wall to divide us, the project sought to use a a government wall to give a voice to under-represented Americans.
Moreover, Richmond, CA is one of the most diverse cities in America, with 1/3 of its population comprised of foreign-born residents and 15 languages spoken.
The project partnered with multiple non-profits from across the city to put on free workshops for the public to submit phrases. Community partners included Ryse Youth Center, NIAD Art Center, Kaleidoscope and local churches. Workshops were held in three languages: English, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
Exhibition of Citizens Photos
Bay Area citizens, journalists and local street photographers collectively took thousands of photos. A local sampling of the community’s images were exhibited at the Richmond Art Center in early 2020. The images will continue to be viewable on this website, on a rotating basis. (we will alter the photos every few months)
Censorship
Censorship:
In August 2019, the project was banned by the City of Richmond from including citizen’s views critical of President Trump’s immigration policies, or the president’s racism. The American National Coalition Against Censorship determined the city’s actions violated the first amendment rights of the Inside Out participants as well as the artist, and they took steps to engage the City of Richmond on civil rights education: Political speech is not only allowed, it is the most protected speech in the United States.
The censorship was indicative of a period of time when the former president’s policies and attitudes towards brown and black communities resulted in a cultural moment in which the censorship of art by or featuring minorities became acceptable and statistically normalized.
As an artist of color who centers my work on communities, I prioritized the original intent of the project and projected a protest response; instead of omitting the phrases completely, I projected the banned phrases with red bars covering them, in order to bring attention to the ommission of fellow citizens’ voices. It was important to highlight the absence of their presence.
With each passing night, the red bars appeared thinner and thinner, until they almost disappeared. This was a dual message for the community. Those who spoke Spanish and contributed the phrases could still read the critique about President Trump, while those who did not read Spanish, including many non-Spanish speakers in city leadership positions who opposed the project, still could not understand the phrases. - Christy Chan
Press
Night One of Protest Image, before the red bars starting getting thinner.