Family Roots Berkeley, 2001 Funded by the Creative Work Fund

"Family Roots" traces the cultural origins of ten diverse urban gardens in the Bay Area and explores the practical, aesthetic and social parameters of sustenance gardens in daily life. This project addressed many of our central artistic concerns, including interrelationships between "nature" and "culture" and food and ritual.

Working with ten families over the course of the year, portraits were created utilizing photographs, oral histories and family recipes. Bypassing traditional art venues, the work was exhibited in two 10' x4 ' panels at a large local food market as well as at a local school that many of the children attended.

All the families who participated were invited to a collective meal; each family brought a dish that was a family recipe, and families engaged in dialogue and viewed the work. Among those cultures represented were Indian, African American, European, African, Mexican, and Japanese.