England Hidalgo & Lian Ladia: The Land Is Too Valuable To Permit Poor People to Park on It

Opening reception Saturday, September 11, 2021

The ARROZidency, an Artist in Residence (A.I.R.) program designed to support Filipinx American artists and founded by O.M.France Viana, presents its exhibition of artists England Hidalgo and Lian Ladia.

The Land Is Too Valuable To Permit Poor People to Park on It is a serendipitous union of talent blossoming from the ARROZidency A.I.R. program. The title of the show is a direct quote from former Head of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, Justin Herman, said during his agency's transformation of "poor people's" neighborhoods in 1970. His comment, delivered from a position of power, within an even more powerful, and globally influential city, begs the question: When these ‘’tions’ are enacted, (reformation, relocation, as well as clearly negative ones such as, misinformation and dislocation), who is on the upside, and who is on the downside of these developments? More disturbing, in their aftermath, what is left? What is remembered? What is preserved?

Lian Ladia’s video installation, We Say You Deserve Better, illustrates how an area of a city is described, valued, labeled, and even re-labeled has been historically cloaked in hollow rhetoric that suggests better conditions for those living in substandard housing.

England Hidalgo’s installation rubbings of street names on rice paper scrolls, The Blighted and Valuable Streets of South of Market, maps all the streets that make up the SOMA Pilipinas cultural district. It serves to guide us through yet also reminds us of the constant struggle to navigate and negotiate space and home.

This body of work by Ladia and Hidalgo represents the collective of voices that strive to inform, teach, and disseminate the histories of immigrant communities.

Curators

Erica Wall Executive Director, MCLA Arts & Culture

Malou Babilonia Founder, PUSOD; Babilonia 1808

More on the ARROZidency here.