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Related Tactics

Michele Carlson: She // Her // Hers
Weston Teruya: He // Him // His
Nathan Watson: He // Him // His

Arts Collective

San Francisco, California

The three members of Related Tactics look intently into the camera: Nathan, an African American man with a shaved head, beard, and glasses; Michele, a Korean American woman with hair in a high bun; and Weston, a Japanese/Okinawan American man with glasses, hair pulled back, and a beard.

Photo by Mia Nakano.

Related Tactics is an artistic collaboration formed in 2015 between artists and cultural workers Michele Carlson, Weston Teruya, and Nathan Watson. Their projects are made at the intersection of race and culture and explore the connections between art, movements for social justice, and the public through transdisciplinary exchanges, collective making, and dialogue. The collective is comprised of three artists of color who came together to proactively and specifically address the impacts of systemic racism and white supremacy and create spaces for mutual support and transformation. While the core of their work is a creative collaboration between the three leads, they often utilize curatorial approaches as artistic gestures to create opportunities within their communities and construct space for collective voice. They confront systemic and institutional racism or inequities that influence our immediate socio-cultural lived experience—a practice that benefits from collective support and sharing knowledge or resources. Related Tactics' projects have been presented by Wexner Center for the Arts, University of San Francisco Thacher Gallery, Berkeley Art Center, The Luminary, Museum of Capitalism at the Kellen Gallery of Parsons School of Design, Center for Craft, Southern Exposure, and Chinese Cultural Center of San Francisco. They have been supported through Kala Art Institute’s Print Public, a Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship, a CoLAB residency from the Lucas Artists Program of Montalvo Arts Center, and grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission and Ruth Foundation for the Arts.

Donor -The Rainin Arts Fellowship is supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.

This artist page was last updated on: 09.18.2024

At the far, covered end of a wooden pier sits an inflatable monument base, with no statue sitting upon it, squeezed at an angle to fit into the space. The surface of the inflatable has a concrete pattern that appears to have been painted over, as if layers of protest graffiti have been whitewashed.

Crystal White Cleanliness (Inflating Agitation) by Related Tactics, 2022. Inkjet print, 36 × 54 inches. Commissioned through Kala Art Institute's Print Public Residency.

An installation of two posters in the windows of a storefront. The light yellow-green poster on the left has an image of a map and green and orange Chinese text that translates to, "The red lines drawn carefully through the city strangle us. Find one of these lines and stand one it. How have you been impacted by this division?" The yellow poster on the right reads, "What names do you speak in spaces of your own opportunity?" in purple text.

The future now by Related Tactics, 2020. Poster prints installed in storefronts along 3rd Street corridor in San Francisco's Bayview, dimensions variable. Commissioned by the Thacher Gallery of the University of San Francisco.

Photo courtesy of University of San Francisco.

Fourteen neon green posters on wooden pickets of varying lengths lean against the glass inside of a storefront window. On each poster is a printed black-and-white image of protest posters from different eras, including ones that say "Police Brutality Must Go," "Yellow Peril Supports Black Power," "Enough Is Enough! You Ignorant Men!," and "Equal Rights For All." On the gallery wall behind the pickets, large black vinyl text reads, "NEVER AGAIN IS NOW."

Never Again Is Now by Related Tactics, 2020. Posters, wood, paint, and vinyl, dimensions variable. Presented by Southern Exposure.