The Fabric of St. Columba (2019)
Public art painted mural
120 inches high x 1020 inches long (10 feet x 85 feet)

This public art mural, a collaboration between Laurie Polster and Debbie Koppman, is located at 6401 San Pablo Ave on the social hall facade of St. Columba Church.

The image makes abstracted connections to West African Adinkra symbols found on the church doors and website – symbols whose meaning include friendship, interdependence, unity, nurturing and resourcefulness – and to enormous interwoven plant, pod, and root structures. Images created through layering and transparency overlap, move back and forth in space, and suggest literal movement down the street, and metaphorical movement through time and place. Layering and overlapping also reference fabric, visually suggesting the interweaving of all life forms in the creation and sustenance of community, reflecting the important role this spiritual non-profit organization plays in the surrounding community.

The project was completed November 2019 and supported by a grant from the City of Oakland (Green Walls, District 1) and St. Columba Church.

Do Trees Have Nationality? (2012)
Website and video, DoTreesHaveNationality.org

This video documents Laurie Polster's public art project, "The Olive Oil Tasting / Gift Exchange Picnic," presented on June 3, 2012, on Jesse Square in San Francisco, CA.

The project with accompanying website raises questions about environmental responsibility in the context of borders, conflict and nationalism, highlighting the destruction of olive trees in Palestine and the impact this has on ecological and social sustainability.

Invited participants – friends, museum goers, and passersby – were given the opportunity to taste several varieties of olive oil produced in different regions of Palestine and engage in a symbolic gift exchange.

For receiving an olive branch, participants were asked to consider the olive trees in Palestine and offer their reflections on one of several questions that address the rights of trees, how their identity impacts their survival, and what our responsibility is toward them.

Presenting this project on Jesse Square, June 3, 2012, became a unique opportunity to frame these issues in juxtaposition with a concurrent exhibition at The Contemporary Jewish Museum SF, "Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art and Jewish Thought" that was absent of artwork or mention of the destruction of olive trees in Palestine.