Formed in the Mission District neighborhood in San Francisco more than a decade ago, The Great Tortilla Conspiracy is a one-of-a-kind food art collective that utilizes actual, edible tortillas as their canvas of choice.
This week, the unusual collective is packing up their artistic ingredients and traveling from the Mission up to Sebastopol for an interactive and delicious in-person event on Thursday, July 22, at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts.
Presented in collaboration with the Graton Labor Center, the in-person event will feature satirical and edible screen-printed art consisting of chocolate on tortillas that can be both a culinary delight or a collectible artifact.
The Great Tortilla Conspiracy brings the gospel of tortilla art to the North Bay for a tongue-in-cheek homage to the miraculous apparitions of various spiritual figures on various foodstuffs through history. The collective also embraces the philosophy of “Free food for all,” and so these tortillas are, well, free.
The event also features powerful testimonies by worker leaders from ALMAS/Graton Day Labor Center, who are on the front lines locally and statewide to uplift labor standards, win immigrant rights, and to end the exclusion of domestic workers from health and safety protections.
The free event will also include live music by Dr. Loco and Francisco Herrera, churros, a photo booth and more.
Concurrently, San Francisco muralist Jos Sances–one of the founding members of the Great Tortilla Conspiracy–will speak about his massive life-size mural “Or, The Whale” that is currently on display at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts
On his website, Sances writes that, “For 8 months I joyfully and manically was able to focus on this very large scratchboard drawing inspired by Moby Dick and the history of whaling in America. The whale’s skin is embedded with a history of capitalism in America, images of human and environmental exploitation and destruction since 1850. The whale is a metaphor for survival, immortality and a reason for optimism.”
The last time that Sances spoke about his mural at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, it was standing-room only. This week, he returns for another discussion of the 52-foot mural, presented in English and translated into Spanish.
The Great Tortilla Conspiracy and Jos Sances appear for an in-person night of digestible art and insightful political discussion on Thursday, July 22, at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 S High St., Sebastopol. Free admission, donations welcome. 5:40pm to 7:30pm. Sebarts.org.
