Ritual Performance in the Public Art of 1980’s San Francisco

Art historian Timothy W. Drescher surveyed mural production in San Francisco and documented the production of 445 murals from 1914 to 1990, making “The City” a site of “the highest per capita mural output in the world.” Individual artists and artist collectives have made their marks on diverse neighborhoods including the Mission District. In 1972, Chicana artists Patricia Rodriguez and Graciela Carrillo first anointed an alley garage door with a mural, initiating what was to become an extensive mural program that eventually filled the length of an entire city block known as Balmy Alley. The following year, neighborhood children painted additional murals as part of an after-school program assisted by local artists, including Susan Kelk Cervantes. The expansion of the mural program began in earnest in 1984 under the direction of artist Ray Patlan, generated by the labor of the artists’ group PLACA. By the summer of 1984, thirty-six people had completed twenty-seven murals. Later, community arts organizations integrated Balmy Alley as a site for the annual observance of El Día de los Muertos, where a ceremonial journey was undertaken by artists, musicians, performers, members of the neighborhood, and its supporters who paused halfway through the alley to ritually recite names of those who had died that year. The research considers how the public spaces surrounding Balmy Alley have influenced the murals’ forms and contents and how the site of this “block-long outdoor art gallery” has produced a sense of community identity in a rapidly shifting demographic area.