JENIFER K WOFFORD PATTERN RECOGNITION

LAWRENCE AND GORRETTI LUI HYDE STREET ART WALL

Jenifer K Wofford’s vibrant Pattern Recognition speaks for itself. Instead of POW! BANG! or WHAM!, comic-book speech bubbles exclaim RUTH ASAWA! BERNICE BING! CARLOS VILLA! and the names of other Asian American artists who lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area. These familiar cartoon graphics give voice to Wofford’s mural, which embeds recognizable Asian decorative patterns within a festive 1980s design vocabulary to celebrate Asian American immigrant histories and cultures.

Wofford, a San Francisco–based Filipina American artist and educator dedicated to civic engagement and the public experience of art, wants her mural to add “a quality of cheer and vibrancy to a community at the crossroads.”

Pattern Recognition’s speech bubbles pop up from a colorful background to shout out the names of nine local Asian American artists from previous generations: Asawa, Bing, and Villa, as well as Ernie Kim, Chiura Obata, Arthur Okamura, Kay Sekimachi, Leo Valledor, and Jade Snow Wong. Wofford sees this as a playful way to reconcile historical omissions, a cheeky version of the names of classical white male writers often etched into the facades of institutional buildings (like those found on the Asian Art Museum, a remnant of when the building served as the San Francisco Main Library).

For the background, Wofford focused on patterns from Asia that would be familiar to neighbors in the surrounding communities (where the artist herself lives). She likens the snippets of patterns to secret codes that can be deciphered by passersby: “Someone from Vietnam might look at a pattern and say, ‘I see what that’s about!’” Wofford also incorporated motifs referencing the work of the artists she honors, such as star shapes that recall Asawa’s wire sculptures, Villa’s signature circle designs, and silhouettes of Wong’s pottery.

By showcasing the cultures of local immigrant communities and home-grown artists with friendly graphics and familiar patterns, Wofford aims to welcome the museum’s neighbors, to let them know that this is a place where they belong.

Curated by Abby Chen Senior Associate Curator and Head of Contemporary Art

Pattern Recognition is the first commission for the Lawrence and Gorretti Lui Hyde Street Art Wall, a 7-by-30-foot site on the exterior of the Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Pavilion. A new space in the city for the presentation of public art, the art wall will host an ongoing series of commissioned works primarily by Bay Area Asian American artists.

Image: Pattern Recognition in process. Photograph courtesy of Jenifer K Wofford.

Jenifer K Wofford: Pattern Recognition was commissioned by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Presentation is made possible with the generous support of Terra Foundation for American Art. This exhibition is a part of the Asian American Experience, which is made possible with the generous support of Glen S. and Sakie T. Fukushima, an anonymous donor in memory of Ambassador and Mrs. Sampson Shen, and Claudine Cheng.