9 EFFIGIES FOR SERRA
“9 Effigies For Serra”, a multimedia installation by Chris “L7” Cuadrado on “founder” of the California Missions Junipero Serra.
Part of Shaping Legacy: San Francisco Monuments & Memorials, a project of San Francisco Arts Commission, with artists Chris “L7” Cuadrado and Kim Shuck, in collaboration Adriana Camarena, LisaRuth Eliott, & Chris Carlson of Shaping San Francisco.
Shaping San Francisco, chosen by the San Francisco Arts Commission "Shaping Legacy" project to examine memory and memorialization in relation to the Junipero Serra monument (one of several public monuments taken down in the wake of the May 2020 police murder of George Floyd), facilitated artist activations, community history circles, and public events from summer 2025 to March 2026 to explore this history.
Chris "L7" Cuadrado's artist activation uses multimedia technology to create an alternative statue emerging from the rubble of what has been torn down. Chris investigates the act of re-appropriation to rebuild the memory of Junipero Serra.
Based on collected ephemera, photographs, video footage, and sourced miniature replicas of Serra, he presents a screening and sound sculpture as a meditation on the figure of Padre Junipero Serra. Viewers are invited to reflect on monuments, legacy, and public space.
Chris also offers a collection of visual art using the stories of indigenous life of Yelamu, reinterpretation of the statue, reflections on the specific missions Serra is credited with starting, and imagery foregrounding landscape in place of inserted mythmaking. (Shaping SF)
ABOUT THE WORK
A Public Talk and Premiere Screening at 518 Valencia Street
