📍Folsom st and Russ st, San Francisco
(Mission Hiring Hall)
PAGSASAMA-SAMA (Tagalog for” joining together”) celebrates SOMA Pilipinas’ legacy of community members coming together. We interweave like the solihiya rattan pattern, creating bursts of sun and breathing life into the neighborhood.
Central to the Folsom façade are two diwata formed by waves— the waves of the sea that connect the Philippine islands, waves of the Pacific that connect the SF diaspora to the Philippines, and the waves we make here in SOMA herself.
These waves weave all the figures together, including the diwatas’ hands reaching out to one another as the Philippine sun shines through.
Portraits are woven in the waves, painted in shades of brown to emulate how woodcarving is a form of Filipinx storytelling. These portraits tell stories of our bayanihan’s kultura, intergenerational support, performances and creativity, activism, resistance, and joy.
Throughout the bottom of the mural are three plants: calamansi, banana leaves, and malunggay; the plants diaspora in multiple waves have brought here in the Bay.
Painted in partnership with @somapilipinas and @somawestcbd
And with the best mural assistants I could ever ask for @lorenzoeeyel and @celluvoidy
And extra shout out to @cabeebz of SOMA P & Erica of SOMA West for the support throughout the process