by Last year, two Los Angeles artists, Brian Howe and Freyja Bardell, who have worked on everything from music videos to movies and public art, were chosen to design a new piece of public art for the Chestnut Avenue underpass on Interstate 5 in Carlsbad. The intention is to infuse the area with vitality and capture the essence of the Barrio neighborhood. This fall, the artists Greenmemepartnership will exhibit preliminary concepts.
In the neighborhood where Carlsbad started more than a century ago, when immigrants escaping the Mexican revolution arrived, worked the fields, and constructed homes and shops, their commission has the potential to change a dismal concrete tunnel.
In the center of the barrio, the blocks around the underpass and the well-known Lola’s deli at Roosevelt Street and Walnut Avenue are gentrifying quickly these days. Reyes and Delores Lola Jauregui started Lola’s Market in 1943. With a Barrio Museum in the old market site and Lola’s deli just across Walnut, the third generation now owns buildings like Lola’s. Lola’s is the most noticeable surviving reminder of the Barrio’s rich past among a number of contemporary structures, some of which are decent, others of which are just plain awful.
One of the most cherished pieces of public art in the barrio is the mural created by students in 1984 on the side of Circle K market on Roosevelt Street. It uses vivid, striking images to convey identity and history, much like the murals of Diego Rivera and other Mexican artists.
Meanwhile, artist Mario Torero, who is well-known for his activist murals in San Diego’s Barrio Logan, is creating a piece of public art for a traffic roundabout at the intersection of Pine Avenue and Harding Street, not far from Lola’s. He makes sense in this situation given his experiences in that neighborhood. Greenmeme’s and his new project will develop on the same schedule, with only a few blocks separating them.
Greenmeme has no Mexican heritage, they don’t paint murals, and they have a huge task ahead of them: using their artistic abilities to create a modern piece that embodies the community and transforms an underpass into a famous entrance to the barrio.
Community Canyon, located in Wilmington close to the Port of Los Angeles, is their most recent project, finished last year. The sculpture, which is made of two enormous chunks of Carnelian granite with the 3D faces of locals carved into them, was inspired by fossilized rocks that are found along beaches. These two banks of enormous faces converse with one another and with guests, divided by a gravel walkway.
As far as Carlsbad is concerned, The Blue Tree at California State University San Bernardino is a more pertinent example of Greenmeme’s public art, even though Canyon affirms the platform’s capacity to convey a sense of community. Greenmeme’s piece in the new station has pictures of the tree printed onto giant glass windshields that are joined into a long, translucent wall after a large, mature pine tree was taken down to make room for an open-air transport station.
The major highway in Carlsbad has its own set of problems: it is gloomy, covered, and has little room for public art. Howe aims to convey a sense of the flow of cars and people, just what Greenmeme accomplished in San Bernardino.
He stated that as possible project additions, Greenmeme is considering curved retaining walls that encircle the underpass’s ends. These would be stimulating additions to a canvas that already includes sidewalks, retaining walls, bike lanes, streets, and stone embankments. Another piece of art may be the arched concrete roof of the tunnel. Greenmeme might collaborate with Caltrans to create a ceiling that is more than simply concrete light fixtures, even though Caltrans intends to add soffet lighting.
What do the people who live in this barrio envision? In order to learn more, Greenmeme held community seminars. Children’s sketches and 300 completed questionnaires were the results of these sessions. Greenmeme is gathering them and considering how to make them a part of public art.
Howe stated, “We’re attempting to determine the materials and the method.” Each end of our wrap-around entry walls has the potential to display independent artwork. There’s also a suggestion that the underpass might receive some kind of treatment, but since it has a sidewalk, we can’t delve too much. I have not yet decided what we will do.
Bardell was raised in the UK, studied Spanish, and worked as an English teacher in South and Central America. As an artist, she has created the sets for movies like Magazine Dreams, which was screened at Sundance and is currently available on streaming services, as well as videos including Kendrick Lamar (for Not Like Us from last year) and David Bowie (for the title track of his previous album, Dark Star).
Having graduated from the Southern California Institute of Architecture with a degree in architecture, Howe is passionate about music, fabrication, and designing different places.
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Howe and Bardell reside in Lone Pine, east of the Sierra, where Greenmeme is establishing an artists’ residency program and an arts club, and in Los Angeles. In order to launch the Eastern Sierra Arts Festival the next year, Howe is collaborating with other artists, municipal officials, and community people.
Without a doubt, Torero’s roundabout and Greenmeme’s underpass will change the Barrio in intriguing ways. Although the artists work in various media and employ distinct creative processes, they are all dedicated to community involvement.
Despite gentrification that has displaced many of the original residents, the Chicano Park murals, created by Torero and other artists, remain a testament to the community’s history, identity, and aspirations decades after they were created.
Torero is curious about how the barrio’s culture, history, and spirit would be captured by Greenmeme, who are not locals. Although Greenmeme’s underpass public art, which is scheduled for completion in 2027, is sure to garner national attention, it will be as difficult to connect with the locals and make them feel a sense of belonging as determining what ingredients go into Lola’s mui bueno tamales. Perhaps Torero and Greenmeme will collaborate to produce some tasty new recipes for the neighborhood through their public art.
Dirk Sutro is the author of UC San Diego and Architectural Guidebooks to San Diego. He has written a great deal about Southern California architecture and design. In addition to writing about homes for San Diego Magazine, he contributes a monthly column to the Times of San Diego.
