‘Radical propagations/ propagaciones radicales’ is a project that explores actions that create healing, resilience, and regeneration in the Los Angeles community. It involves curating an exhibition with the same name and organizing other community-based activities, like the Pile-2-patio mulch sculpture, and the propagation tables.

‘Radical’ comes from the Latin radix, which means ‘root,’ and in a broad sense, this refers to actions that favor change at the root cause of a matter. The word ‘propagations’ comes from the Latin propagare ‘set forward, extend, spread, increase.’ The botanical definition corresponds to the multiplication of plants from cuttings put into water or soil to develop new roots. When a plant is propagated this way, it passes through a moment of stress, but later, this signals a cascade of metabolic responses that allow the plant to start regenerating. And from that wounded tissue, we begin to notice root growth. Both terms combined describe actions that spread from the bottom up. 

For this project, I was also inspired by the concept of “maintenance art,” a term proposed by Mierle Laderman Ukeles that corresponds to art that is not noticed and, therefore, the impact is often not recognized. She wrote a manifesto that emphasized maintenance (domestic, as well as general/public and earth maintenance) as a creative strategy. Her contribution to contemporary art made it possible to consider everyday and repetitive tasks, habits, manual labor, and care work as art.