In January 2021, Crenshaw Dairy Mart launched a multi-faceted initiative titled Pray for LA which encompassed multiple projects aimed at confronting the relationship between systemic racism and the ways the pandemic has affected communities of color. For Things With Feathers, The Mistake Room’s trio of projects for Art Rise, the collective activated domingo, a rolling social sculpture based out of a 1967 Chevrolet step-van repurposed as a rolling space for art and healing. When the vehicle was acquired by CDM Co-founder noé olivas in 2011, initially the title of the sculpture was inspired by a found sign with the word, “Domingo” (Sunday in Spanish), where olivas began to consider Sundays not his day of rest but his day of art practice - his day of labor. Blending notions of labor and leisure together, Sundays, being a day traditionally reserved for gathering with family, frames projects done within domingo, where friends, family, and people from the community can gather and share stories and experiences of art with others. 

For Things With Feathers CDM began working with the largely working-class immigrant communities of Pico Union. olivas, in coordination with team members and volunteers, put the delivery van to work as a site of service to its peers and community, distributing care in the form of food, and art supplies, and providing a site for collective creativity to a community disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many times in this process, domingo, existing as the precarious and fickle-spirited 1967 Chevy step-van it is, broke down, stalled, and had to be towed - after months of planning. The project hence grew outside of the confines of merely food justice or mutual aid, but a testament to abolitionist praxis and the spirit of group improvisation. Unrelenting to the commitment of a singular social sculpture, domingo, in prayer, in devotion, in dedication, led to entire teams caravanning with their small sedans and hatchbacks, each with maybe ten to twenty boxes of fresh produce, from Crenshaw and Manchester to Pico and Union so that communities were able to receive food, no matter what. Much of the spirit of domingo is in this prayer, this dedication, this devotion. 

domingo has been supported, in part, by The Mistake Room (TMR) and Art Rise, a project of WERISE.LA, an initiative of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, and by the tremendous support of Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI), Community Services Unlimited (CSU), Prosperity Market, Armada Unified, Concierge Kitchen, Art Supply Kits Lead Organizer Jake Freilich, Lesson Plans Artists: Cindy Bonaparte, iris yirei hu, Salvador de la Torre, and Erin Bagley

Domingo Project

Situated in Southern California, domingo project, a.k.a. untitled space, a.k.a. rolling social sculpture, is an arts-based research, practice, and project space by artist noé olivas. It is based out of a 63 square feet 1967 Chevrolet Step-Van P30 that was used as a delivery vehicle in the ‘60s. Founded in 2011 by olivas, the project went by the title untitled space, taking into consideration how each program or project completed in the Step-Van would contribute to the titling of the artwork, projects, and experience created in the mobile gallery space. Over the years, the project space has seen itself morph into various forms, adhering to the collaborators’ and communities’ visions of the space. As untitled space, the Step-Van has gone from being a studio and gallery space to a gift shop, coffee shop, lounge space, a space for pedagogy, experimental art space, performance space, and even back to its original purpose as a delivery truck. 

In the 1960s, Chevy Step-Vans came in 11 basic models, 21 different sizes, and 38 model-body combinations. The van used for domingo project was once a delivery truck, fully stocked with all the special equipment needed for storage and delivery. It was later refurbished into a living space by the time olivas acquired it. He then would go on to transform the Step-Van into an art project space, deeply inspired by Southern California custom lowrider and hotrod car culture. 

olivas is a Southern California-based artist that investigates the poetics of labor through printmaking, sculpture, and performance. Since moving from San Diego to Los Angeles, olivas has been preparing to drive the Step-Van up to coast with a new name. Inspired by a found sign with the words DOMINGO (SUNDAY in Spanish), olivas began to consider Sundays not his day of rest but his day of art practice. Blending notions of labor and leisure together, domingo project speaks to the inherent labor in artmaking as well as the leisure associated with art viewing. Additionally, as Sunday is a day traditionally reserved for gathering with family, projects done within domingo on that day becomes spaces where friends, family, and people from the community can gather and share stories and experiences of art with others.

Parked beside the Crenshaw Dairy Mart (CDM) as of April 2020, domingo is driven by the same values and political concerns of CDM. Founded in 2019 by artists Patrisse Cullors, Alexandre Ali Reza Dorriz, and noé olivas, CDM emerges from an investment in abolition, modes of accessibility in art practice, and weaving community solidarity through new memories. It is home to an artist collective and art gallery dedicated to shifting the trauma-induced conditions of poverty and economic injustice, bridging cultural work and advocacy, and investigating ancestries through the lens of Inglewood and its community. Originally built in the 1960s as well, CDM maintains the aesthetics of the period. Their connection with labor and commerce, as CDM was once a neighborhood convenience store and domingo was a delivery van, is recognized with every project put together in either space.