Harvey Milk Terminal 1
Departures - Level 2
Beyond When the Golden Portal Can Come and Ghost Extraction Dialogue for the Followers of Blood 2005
Shaun O’Dell
b.
Color sugarlift aquatint etching with hardground and softground
H37 in. x W32 in. and H39 in. x W32 in.
SFAC 139
For this suite of prints, Shaun O’Dell uses simplified icons of American history—liberty bells and silhouettes of the founding fathers—to depict the complexity of the past. In Beyond When the Golden Portal Can Come, O’Dell maps American genealogy, beginning with the pilgrims’ desire for liberty and the Mayflower’s voyage across the Atlantic, which led to contact with Native Americans. The artist goes on to complicate the American family tree in Ghost Extraction Dialogue for the Followers of Blood, highlighting that history is full of overlapping stories of individuals, who slip into obscurity.
