This exhibition was organized, in collaboration with Lynne Yamamoto, by Ismaris Molina and Kelina Parache of The Robert F. Wagner Jr. Institute for the Arts and Technology, and Danny Larino of Middle College High School.

Yamamoto's work is also featured in a web project created by the students, with artist and educator Aresh Javadi, and Yamamoto. It includes an interview between the students and the artist, personal reflections on particular art works from each student's point of view, as well as curriculum links for educators to sites relating to Art, English, and U.S. History, with a focus on immigration, labor and colonialism. The project can be viewed on-line at www.ps1.org/yamamoto. Veronica Beirne and Hilda Nieto Romero developed the framework for the curriculum links.

The exhibition included artwork by two of the students, Ismaris Molina and Danny Larino, which thematically relate to Yamamoto's work.

C is one of my favorite pieces because it gives me the feeling that Lynne's grandmother Chiyo is here with us. Seeing that the leaves don't really touch the wall makes it seem as though they crawled up there. I like the fact that it's made up of leaves, which are something natural and from the earth. That makes it more beautiful. Their colors gradually fading make it more like life. Some of the leaves look like they're bleeding. --Ismaris          

The first time I saw this piece I liked it: words on nails hammered into a wall, a certain number of feet, exactly the height of her grandmother. Right away I thought, you can feel it, how she felt hammered to do her work and was nailed, so she couldn't stop working until she died. --Kelina                                  

Entering the room, alone, you feel there was a crisis involving a person. There are old hands, wrinkled and about to fall apart. Those hands have been in life for a long time, and they are surrounded by darkness. There are things from the past. The wringer is chipped and old. Submissions has old dates. It's like an old calendar. Like the hands, the nails are destroyed as well. They're old, chipped and a bit rusty. They are driven into the wall, leaving
scars. --Danny                      

Acknowledgments:
Noris Nin and Ismael Molina, Leonarda and Jose Parache, Maria and Manuel Larino. Bill Beirne, Terri Powell, Paul Pfeiffer, Cavan Meese, Lin-i Liu, Tian Chen, Mimi Young, Eric Manigian, Terry Born, Betsey Barrera, Carol and Thomas Yamamoto.

A web site (no longer functioning) was launched in conjunction with the exhibition. It was created by Aresh Javadi and Danny Larino with Ismaris Molina, Kelina Parache; and updated by Lucretia Knapp.

Photo credits: Aresh Javadi, Brad Goda, Lynne Yamamoto