Mirrors of Happiness – Statement
In spring 2021, I joined the re-entry through the arts program at Planting Justice—an urban farm and nursery in Sobrante Park, the easternmost area of Oakland, CA. Situated between two railroad tracks and Interstate 880, the community has thrived since its establishment in 2009. Planting Justice has been nurturing the surrounding neighborhood, which grapples with low income and a high crime rate.
My role at Planting Justice is collaborating with individuals to create art. We began by using the abundant flora in the nursery to produce cyanotype photography prints. With the guidance of my fellow instructor, Kate DeCiccio, participants explored the world of stencil art and designed butterfly decorations to represent transformation. Finally, we combined our efforts to create a mural adorned with portraits of each participant, blending photographs and stenciled art.
Throughout the project, my medium format film camera captured people working in the nursery and surroundings. By the middle of 2023, over 100 film rolls had been exposed, and the resulting images unveiled a tapestry of artistic representation—people and places directly captured throughout the process, cyanotype prints emerging from images, stencil cutouts shaping familiar faces, painted renditions born from those stencils, and moments where individuals encountered their own portraits in wood.
The photographs encapsulated the vibrant energy that permeated the atmosphere especially via a variety of colors. The lush greenery, the fiery reds and yellows of blossoms, and the cyanotype blues and other vivid hues from spray-painted stencils. A diverse range of skin tones reinforced this energy of color.
Planting Justice stands as a sanctuary for those formerly incarcerated, those contending with shadows from their pasts. In a society marked by injustice, poverty, and violence, persons who have been harmed and persons who have caused harm emerge from the crucible of life’s complexities. It is noteworthy that a significant portion of the victims of the Prison Industrial Complex are people of color, particularly Black individuals, and youth from low-income families. Members at Planting Justice share the common experience of losing themselves within this socioeconomic spiral.
A poignant memory etches itself in my heart—the radiant awe and joy on the faces, the delight echoing in the voices of those who beheld their likenesses in wood. For individuals once isolated, adrift in a sea of societal estrangement, this rediscovery became a beacon of resurgent confidence and enduring presence.
As the mural project continues to evolve, I persist in capturing moments of happiness and joy, not merely reflected in faces, but emanating from plants and land. This ongoing series, titled MIRRORS OF HAPPINESS, is intended to be my tribute to the transformative power of art and the unwavering spirit of those dedicated to restoring their community, a community embodying the principles of transformative justice.
Hiroyo Kaneko
2023