Monica Rodriguez's exhibition "Californiana" at the de Saisset Museum explores the colonization of California from 1542 to 1846, focusing on the missionization period (1769–1833) when Native Californians were forced into labor within the Alta California Mission system. The installation features twenty-one adobe bells planted with native California plants, architectural plans, and photorealist drawings of historical texts from the Mission Library Collection, all critiquing the colonial mindset and its enduring impact on the land and people.
This exhibition matters because it reexamines a foundational but often romanticized chapter of California history through a contemporary artistic lens, using site-specificity and archival materials to challenge dominant narratives. By highlighting the violence of colonization and the erasure of Indigenous cultures, Rodriguez's work contributes to ongoing conversations about decolonization, historical memory, and the role of museums in addressing their own institutional histories.