Local artist Truong Tran’s current show Framed Targets casts a spotlight on the ways San Francisco’s rapid gentrification is affecting artists and people of color. According to Tran, “San Francisco was once the place of the margin but take a look around you and you’ll see that this is gentrification, the erasure of history, culture, and community.” He adds, “The arts culture of this city is being removed as we speak. When an artist in a community is removed they don’t often come back, they’re replaced by someone else.” He goes on to talk about artists’ studios and galleries being taken over by tech companies and the way “coffee shops, trinket shops… and four-star restaurants” are replacing creative spaces. He warns of the mistake of viewing boutique shops and restaurants as urban culture, when instead, he says, they can symbolize the erasure of history.
Tran’s exhibit comprises over 150 framed colorful bull’s-eyes and light sculptures that symbolize the ways people of color, creative communities, and LGBT people are all vulnerable to displacement in a gentrifying city. The SF-based video production company Slow Clap followed Tran as he was creating this project in his Mission studio. Watch the five-minute mini-documentary to hear Tran describe his work and his concerns for San Francisco’s future.
You can view Framed Targets now through April 11 at the new gallery space at California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS) and you can see an example of Tran’s previous work here.
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