Lifelong (In)Vocation
– Dutch colonial era brick from Indonesia, Gold, Mica (fool’s gold) and Resin
Permanently installed at San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut Street, San Francisco Historical Landmark no.85
© 2021 Chris Manfield

Lifelong (In)Vocation is a monument & archive project that reflects on the discourses surrounding my participant-ship from 2015-2021 as an international (art) student of San Francisco Art Institute through a shared global narrative of (de)colonization. By replacing one colonial memento with an altered other, I’m hoping to invoke a spirit of joint inquiry to redefine the historical narrative that spans across one space to another. The brick, planted on the ground, in a literal sense is foundational to an institutional building; metaphorically, it represents an institutional dogma. The inscribed brick that represents my colonial heritage that was inherited from my father (as patriarchal inheritance) in relationship to the site, becomes a memorial to my relationship with the institution as well as the universal dharma of (de)colonization.