By Jonathan Morales
April 25, 2024
In 2020, Sacramento State alumnus Stone Singh began creating a sculpture highlighting inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Two years later, struggling to find a home for the sculpture, Singh reached out to his alma mater to see if there was space for it there.
Less than a year later, Singh was tragically struck and killed by a vehicle. The sculpture – an imposing critique of mass incarceration and America’s broken promises – languished in a parking lot next to railroad tracks, it’s future uncertain.
Until now.
“Stone, in the summer of ’22, had reached out to a few professors on campus, who directed Stone to me.” said Kelly Lindner, Sac State art galleries and collections curator. “We started talking about bringing the piece to campus and found a site at the front of campus that was well-suited for the piece. And then unfortunately Stone died. We persevered through all the various hoops to figure out how to get it here, and now it’s finally happening.”
The University officially unveiled the sculpture, titled “In God We Trust,” on April 17. Situated at the front of campus near Sacramento Hall, its centerpiece is a large, broken column bearing the words of the national motto from which the piece takes its name. Next to the column is a wire skull with a lock on its forehead. Next to that is a golden eagle, aspiring to put the column back together.
A plaque reads, in part, “In honor of the people who continue to work as slaves in our penal system,” a nod to the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery “except as a punishment for crime.”
Lindner said the sculpture represents the deterioration of society – the words on the broken column will eventually rust and bleed – but also hope, as seen in the eagle trying to restore the promise of America.
The subject was personal for Singh, who spent time in a county jail and, while at Sac State, participated in Project Rebound, a program that supports students who were formerly incarcerated.
Shortly after graduating in 2020 with a degree in Art Studio, Singh conceived the idea for the sculpture but needed funding. Andrew Winn, then the Project Rebound director, connected him with the nonprofit organization California Lawyers for the Arts, which provides legal services for artists. Seeing the piece aligning with its mission and advocacy work, the organization obtained a grant from the Art for Justice Fund to finance Stone's project.
“It was great to be able to be back here working on campus, seeing a lot of people, a lot of faculty, that I still know. I know Stone was really excited to have it here.” -- Chris Duffy, Sac State alumnus who installed Stone Singh's sculpture
Alma Robinson, CLA’s executive director, said she was familiar with Project Rebound and jumped at the chance to work with one of the program’s graduates.
“This takes our organization to a different level,” she said. “We have never commissioned a piece before. We’re very excited about seeing Stone's piece to completion and installation, and it means that we can help artists have a voice in important civic conversations through their art.”
Singh was a member of the Royal Chicano Air Force, the Sacramento-based art collective founded by Sacramento State students and faculty in 1970. The influence of the RCAF is seen throughout the sculpture, in the skull that evokes the “calaveras” seen during Dia de los Muertos, and in the golden eagle, an important Aztec cultural symbol.
He and classmate Chris Duffy, who assisted with the project’s early stages, even consulted Sac State Emeritus Professor and RCAF co-founder Esteban Villa as they planned the design.
“Stone’s dad, Arturo Singh, was one of the ‘OG’ RCAF guys down in San Diego,” Duffy said, “and so we sort of had this in, (where) we could go to Villa and ask him questions about it. And he knew public art better than anybody else did in Sacramento.”
Duffy said he and Singh were part of Sac State’s first public art cohort, which in 2018 created a metal stegosaurus sculpture known as #Poppy that resides south of campus on Ramona Avenue. The two continued to create public art together after graduating.
After Singh’s death in 2023, Duffy offered to install the piece at Sac State and fulfill his friend’s vision. As he was putting the finishing touches on the sculpture in early April, it was already provoking questions and conversations with people passing by.
“It was great to be able to be back here working on campus, seeing a lot of people, a lot of faculty, that I still know,” he said. “I know Stone was really excited to have it here.”
Lindner said she hopes to partner with CLA this fall on a symposium or panel discussion about incarceration. The sculpture, she said, will live on campus for two years before moving to a permanent home somewhere else.
For now, the piece will greet visitors to campus, provoke curiosity and, hopefully, spark dialogue.
“ ‘In God We Trust’ is addressing important societal issues,” Lindner said. “Having the sculpture at the front of campus supports the Sac State educational mission. It can be the spark to get the conversation going.”
