Skip to main content

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Advanced Search
Chinadom by Holley Junker
Photo CreditCarol M. Highsmith Photography
Chinadom
Photo CreditCarol M. Highsmith Photography

Chinadom

Artist
Year1999
Classification textile
Medium cotton, polyester, metallic thread and acrylic paint
Dimensions75 x 51 3/4 in. (190.5 x 131.4 cm)
Other (framed): 83 1/4 x 59 1/2 in. (6.94 x 4.96 ft.)
Credits Commissioned through the Art in Architecture Program
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Location


  • Artist Holley Junker conceived the subject and format for her vibrantly colored quilt, "Chinadom," after learning that the Sacramento Courthouse site had once been the heart of the city's original Chinese community.  Merchants and traders from China set up trade there during the Gold Rush, and served the burgeoning community that had flocked to California in search of fortune.  According to contemporary sources, local residents dubbed the neighborhood "Chinadom."



    Junker's fabric construction is a topographical map, which she based on infrared satellite photographs of the Sacramento area.  The quilt depicts Sacramento's historic Chinese district at its center.  Radiating outward from this center are the city's surrounding counties, indicating where numerous Chinese subsequently migrated, and where many of their descendants now live.  Junker's work thus traces the arrival and transformation of one of Sacramento's important communities.