Greetings Friends !

I am very pleased to invite you, your friends and relations to the opening reception of Public Works – Artists’ Interventions on September 16, 6-8 pm, a group exhibition at Mills College Art Museum in Oakland, California, curated by Christian Frock and Tanya Zimbardo, and the following week, to my illustrated talk on selected works – Past Present Future – on September 23, 7 pm, in Danforth Hall, adjacent to the Museum.

The exhibition features Sitting Still l (pictured on attached pdf announcement) and the Sitting Still Series among other artists’ works. At the time that I created this work (1970), I was exploring the nature of what a performance could be, where it could be, and who could be an audience. With this work, I thought I was simply demonstrating how a seated human figure could easily transform an environment – but as it turns out, I was really doing much, much more.

What I learned some years later, is that I was actually facing my future:

Sitting Still l took place in a neglected garbage area where water had collected due to the construction of the 101 Freeway Interchange at then called, Army & Potrero.  Sitting in the overstuffed armchair I found there, I faced the “audience” of people in slow-moving cars, and I also faced:

• Exact site of what would become Crossroads Community (the farm)
, a pioneering urban agriculture community farm, art and education center, and farm park that I developed beginning in 1974
• Northern frame of Islais Creek Watershed along Cesar Chavez Street.
• 101 Freeway Interchange at Army & Potrero that was being built, and that I am currently proposing to become the Northern Gateway to the Watershed.
• And, amazingly enough, I was actually sitting in water from the Islais Creek,
in a pond created due to the heavy construction. Today, I am seeing multiple opportunities to daylight the Creek throughout this Watershed to address flooding, climate change, and habitat restoration, and am working to achieve that goal.

Because of all of this powerful and profound synchronicity, I now consider Sitting Still l to be my Watershed Piece, all meanings and puns intended.

Please come to the opening on September 16, 6-8 PM and see the show, and return again for my talk on September 23 at 7 PM . I will discuss how all of this early work has led directly to what I am creating today and for the future with A Living Library, aka, A.L.L.

I look forward to seeing you soon ! Thank you. http://mcam.mills.edu/events/

Sending love and appreciation,

Bonnie Ora