We the People, 2020
In collaboration with Erie Arts & Culture, Bayfront NATO/MLK Center, and Our West Bayfront (Collaborating artists: Fredy Huaman Mallqui and Alexandra Anthes)
Technique & Material: Hand drawing portraits, etching in poplar wood, painting and woodworking
300’ L x 6’ H x 5” D
Location: West Fourth and Cherry streets, Erie PA
We the People features 50 portraits of people who live in the neighborhood which includes areas from Sassafras to Liberty streets and West Sixth Street to the bayfront.
Our project was focused on dialogue, representation, and collaboration. As artists, we felt like conduits (or interpreters of information). Our various community engagements culminated to form the mural on West 4th and Cherry. We attempted to create an artistic expression of what we believed the neighborhood represented and wanted: A contemporary shared space accessible to families, youth, and community members alike. In working with Our West Bayfront to actualize this, a recreational area was formed, and our contribution as creatives was to make a kind of living memorial in the form of an alternative fence/mural surrounding the rec space.
The impact it had on the community was ‘uplifting.’ visibly there was a lot of joy and pride, or more explicitly, unity. People being able to identify people in their neighborhood, still alive and in real-time, was a powerful and simple way to pay homage to the inherently connected nature of living in a community/neighborhood. Without fail, almost everyone who stopped by and lived in the West Bayfront could identify at least one, if not two, of the individuals represented in the mural. People whose portraits were drawn eagerly stopped by to get a photo of themselves next to their portrait; There was a sense of joy and pride that was exemplified in these moments that felt meaningful and impactful to those being literally and symbolically represented.
Our project was focused on dialogue, representation, and collaboration. As artists, we felt like conduits (or interpreters of information). Our various community engagements culminated to form the mural on West 4th and Cherry. We attempted to create an artistic expression of what we believed the neighborhood represented and wanted: A contemporary shared space accessible to families, youth, and community members alike. In working with Our West Bayfront to actualize this, a recreational area was formed, and our contribution as creatives was to make a kind of living memorial in the form of an alternative fence/mural surrounding the rec space.
The impact it had on the community was ‘uplifting.’ visibly there was a lot of joy and pride, or more explicitly, unity. People being able to identify people in their neighborhood, still alive and in real-time, was a powerful and simple way to pay homage to the inherently connected nature of living in a community/neighborhood. Without fail, almost everyone who stopped by and lived in the West Bayfront could identify at least one, if not two, of the individuals represented in the mural. People whose portraits were drawn eagerly stopped by to get a photo of themselves next to their portrait; There was a sense of joy and pride that was exemplified in these moments that felt meaningful and impactful to those being literally and symbolically represented.