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Where toxins still linger in LA soil, artists look to strengthen residents’ relationship to the earth

A woman with light skin tone, short salt-and-pepper hair, and reading glasses stands before a series of long, translucent white cloths that are hanging from the ceiling. Each cloth has a different aerial view of the Willowbrook area.
Beatriz Jaramillo stands next to her artwork, titled "In-Between Time." She screen printed the nine curtains in the piece with tar.
(
Eric Jaipal
/
Self Help Graphics & Art
)

Exide — a now-shuttered battery recycling plant in the city of Vernon — spewed lead into thousands of homes in Southeast Los Angeles County for decades. Despite growing up in the area, Marvella Muro did not learn about the plant till she was an adult.

She recalled an environmental justice symposium at East L.A. College, where a group of students shared that they had elevated levels of lead in their blood. Muro said she worried about her health, her loved ones, and the potential of having lead-ridden soil surrounding her home.

The session stayed with her. Years later, Muro became a curator at Self Help Graphics & Art, a community arts center in Boyle Heights. When the Getty announced that the next theme of its giant, cross-site arts event — PST ART — would be “Art & Science Collide,” Muro knew exactly what she wanted to do.

She and her team reached out to local artists. With the help of community members, they put together “Sinks: Places We Call Home.” The exhibition opens Saturday at Cal State L.A. and depicts how toxic pollutants have impacted local residents’ health and quality of life.

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“This exhibition is very L.A. focused,” Muro said, “but [the issue is] something that really impacts communities nationwide.”

Good to know
  • “Sinks: Places We Call Home” will be on view through February 15, 2025. It opens to the public on Saturday, September 21, 2024, from 5–8 p.m. You can get tickets to the opening here.

  • The exhibition is free to the public. But if you drive there, you’ll have to pay $5 for four hours of parking. (The closest parking lot is Structure C.)

  • Address: Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State L.A.
    5151 State University Drive Los Angeles, CA 90032

Art rooted in history

The exhibition takes its name from “Geographies of Race and Ethnicity II,” an essay by social scientist Laura Pulido. In the essay, Pulido says:

“Industry and manufacturing require sinks — places where pollution can be deposited. Sinks typically are land, air, or water, but racially devalued bodies can also function as sinks.”

Muro said she thought this was fitting, because polluters often treat low-income communities of color as dumping grounds.

The exhibition opens with a collection of pieces that highlight the natural beauty and potential harms of living in L.A. County — everywhere from Frogtown to Signal Hill.

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A woman with light skin tone and short medium-brown hair smiles while standing next to a sign that reads "SINKS: PLACES WE CALL HOME." Behind her there are several potted plants, of different sizes.
Marvella Muro, the curator of the exhibition, contributed a letter she received from the Department of Toxic Substances Control regarding contaminated soil in her home.
(
Eric Jaipal
/
Self Help Graphics & Art
)

In one section of the exhibit, a giant timeline of Willowbrook, an unincorporated community in South L.A., traces the history of contamination in what is now Magic Johnson Park. Visitors learn about the construction of a 120-acre “Tank Farm,” where companies like ExxonMobil stored petroleum products.

The company later sold the land to a developer. And on it, the developer built a housing complex that was “touted as an oasis for working-class Black families,” Muro told LAist. Those families were later displaced, after enduring cancer, leukemia, miscarriages, and other health issues.

Beatriz Jaramillo, an artist who earned her MFA at Cal State L.A., captured this history on nine translucent white curtains that hang from the ceiling of the exhibit hall.

Ahead of the exhibition, Jaramillo spent years researching the Willowbrook neighborhood. She also spoke with local residents, including members of its community garden. With their help, Jaramillo created another art piece: a large mirror surrounded by dozens of small planters. Jaramillo made each planter by hand, and community members selected the plants that were placed inside them.

Three women stand beside a a series of shelves lined with planters. There is a large mirror between the shelves.  One of the women has light skin tone and a salt-and-pepper bob. The other woman has medium-light skin tone and a long ponytail. The third woman cannot be clearly distinguished.
Jaramillo's "In-Nature" includes 36 terracotta planters made by hand.
(
Julia Barajas
/
LAist
)

This part of the exhibition, Jaramillo said, “invites people to reflect on our own contribution to the environment, on how we can collectively work together to improve our community.”

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When the exhibition closes, she added, the Willowbrook community members will take the planters home.

Want to learn more?
  • The exhibition closes with a small reading area where visitors can pick up brochures on groups like Prospering Backyards. There is also a zine library, including one about an augmented reality experience at Magic Johnson Park created by Willowbrook teens.

Art connected to action

Maru Garcia had made art pieces about Exide’s impact on Southeast L.A., but the work left her feeling frustrated. “It's very important, of course, to bring attention to a problem,” she told LAist, “but I thought that was not enough . . . I was just describing something, but not really able to help in any sense.”

Garcia, who has degrees in chemistry and biotechnology, saw “Sinks” as an “opportunity to finally be in the community, and do something more hands-on.”

She also participated, with Muro, in Prospering Backyards, a group of scientists, artists, activists, and community members developing an alternative method for reducing lead in contaminated soil. (Currently, California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control remediates the soil in Southeast L.A. by removing it and replacing it with new soil. The contaminated soil gets transported elsewhere.)

Through Prospering Backyards, Garcia learned about the potential benefits of minerals known as zeolites, which suck up the lead. Garcia also learned about the ways in which soil contamination has impacted Southeast L.A. residents’ day-to-day life.

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“A lot of people stopped gardening,” she said. “They also felt really bad about letting their children play in their yards.”

A woman with medium-light skin tone and medium-length dark hair stands among three 6-foot tall cylinders made of soil, clay, zeolites, and mulch.
The sculptures in Maru Garcia's "Boiling Rock 3" are supported by steel poles that will slowly reveal the words "Madre" (Mother), "Alive," and "Home" as they dissolve.
(
Eric Jaipal
/
Self Help Graphics & Art
)

For the exhibition, Garcia made multiple pieces inspired by her work with the community, including three 6-foot tall pillars composed of soil, zeolites, mulch, and clay. These represent the palm-sized columns of earth that they extracted from community members’ homes during the course of their research.

“Through this project, we are really trying to heal this relationship that we have with our soil,” Garcia said. “Instead of seeing it as a source of contaminants, as something that is attacking or affecting us, I want us to remember that soil is like a mother, it's a source of life.”

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