Fung Collaboratives + Redwood City Improvement Association + Art Kiosk presents

Tara de la Garza
Monument to the Plastocene IV

Curated by Lance M. Fung June 12 – July 5, 2020

Between social justice and social distancing, Public Art can be an important forum at this time. On the Peninsula, we are lucky to have the Art Kiosk in Redwood City’s Courthouse Square. As quarantines are loosened, the Art Kiosk offers art installations for contemplation and connectivity in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Environmental justice and stewardship of the planet are central to de la Garza’s art practice. She reveals the stories embedded in our collective consumption, specifically of single use plastic. She delves into the archaeology of contemporary waste materials. “The work become time capsules, little stories of our consumption.” She hopes to elevate plastic as a medium.

Her minimalist forms contain a maximalist aesthetic of excess. Textures fashioned from the detritus of our community and molding into concrete cylinders and lights. Influenced by minimalist and constructivist artists such as Dan Flavin, Eva Hesse, Vladmir Tatlin, and contemporary artists Rachel Whiteread and Eva Rothschild, de la Garza’s ‘Monumental’ projects continue a practice of reusing materials and referencing modernist forms.