A HISTORICALLY ACCURATE MURAL about the Ohlone Native Americans’ brutal annihilation by Spanish missionaries which has graced the corner of 41st Street and Piedmont Avenue for 20 years is slated to be painted over by property management, allegedly because someone got offended by its portrayal of nudity.
Again.
Entitled “The Capture of the Solid, Escape of the Soul,” the mural depicts the history of the Bay Area’s gold miners and cowboys, fused with modern society and other themes. The work painted by Rocky Rische-Baird depicts Ohlone natives being given small-pox infected blankets and clothing, which the artist said the Ohlone did not wear before western influence.
Flanked on either side of the mural are two black and white images of a screaming Mother Nature, a nod to the native Californian artist’s love of the outdoors.
Over the years, teachers have brought students to the mural to see a visual representation of what they read about in class. It’s featured as a thing-to-see in online Oakland guidebooks, and it is considered a treasure by famed local artists and neighborhood activists.
“Unlike a lot of painters, he did a lot of studies before attempting to paint this,” said artist Dan Fontes, who is known for painting Oakland’s iconic freeway column giraffes and zebras. “Each of the figures is puzzled out intentionally.”
“The Capture…” was painted in acrylics over a six-month period in 2005-2006 by then-local artist Baird, who now goes by Rische-Baird and lives out of state. Rische-Baird, who mostly relied on community donations to live on while painting the mural, did years of research on the culture and history of California before painting it on the walls of what is now the sushi restaurant Ebiko down the street from the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center. He built his own scaffolding, with a little wooden box nearby that accepted coins and bills, and spent nearly eight hours every day on the work.
“I’m pissed,” said Piedmont Avenue local Tim O’Brien, who watched Rische-Baird paint the mural 20 years ago. “I told my sister up in Seattle and she’s pissed.”
O’Brien remembers that the artwork drew a lot of controversy when it was first done.
“But anytime there’s something you do and put your heart and soul into, somebody doesn’t give a rat’s ass. They’re only concerned about their property values,” he said.
According to an email sent to tenants of the Castle Apartment building at 4154 Piedmont Ave. by SG Real Estate Co. Director of Property Management Gracy Rivera, the painting that shows a nude Ohlone man is being destroyed because some find it distasteful.
“Over the past several weeks, we’ve received feedback from members of our community identifying aspects of the mural that may be interpreted as offensive,” Rivera’s email states. “After careful review, we believe it’s appropriate to retire the mural to ensure our shared spaces reflect an inclusive, welcoming environment for everyone.”
Erasing art, erasing history
When it was unveiled in 2006, there were protests over the full nudity of the Ohlone man accepting clothes from a missionary, which are depicted as doll cut-out clothes, while modern society looks on. The genitals were quickly scratched out by a vandal, and every so often a joker writes graffiti near the offending body parts, neighborhood activist Valerie Winemiller said.
Winemiller has a cart in her basement where she keeps graffiti remover and graffiti-removing top coat, which she wheels to the mural when it’s tagged.
“I think it’s a really important piece in the neighborhood simply because it’s not commercial,” she said. “So much of our public space is really commercial space. I think it’s really important to have non-commercial art that the community can enjoy.”
Baird painted at least four murals in Oakland, painstakingly researching the history of the old Key System train line that used to connect the Bay Area before it was destroyed in a world that favored autos. That was the theme of two of his other murals, which were each on Broadway and Piedmont Avenue. The Key System murals were destroyed or removed, and the destruction of the Baird mural kitty-corner to “The Capture of the Solid, Escape of the Soul” at the old Key System station caused anguish as well.
Fontes, who considers the reclusive artist a “genius,” believes thousands have visited the mural “to reinforce the lessons that history teaches us all.”
“I don’t think there is another mural artist who has depicted all of what our colleges — Laney, Mills — have been teaching all along,” he added. “I see the tales of the Native American community being disrespected and pushed out. It harkens back to the business of if you don’t know your own history, you’re condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.”
Attempts to reach Rivera were not returned by press time.
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