"Radiating from a dark cloud...", 2020, Print, 80 x 40 inches
For inquiries contact Michael Steinberg
"Tropical Bounds," 2018, Pigment print on Hotpress, 80 x 40 inches, Edition of 18, Publisher: Eminence Grise Editions. Printer: Andre Ribuoli.
For inquiries contact Michael Steinberg
"Tropical Bounds (Triptych)", 2018, Pigment print on Hotpress, 25 x 12 1/2 inches each on separate sheets of paper, Edition of 18. Publisher: Eminence Grise Editions. Printer: Andre Ribuoli.
“Radiating from a dark cloud...,” (2020) is a montage of various photographs from American colonial texts about the Philippines, as well as self portraits of the artist taken in Arabia mountain in Georgia. It is inspired by staged portraits by American and European photographers of the Filipinx population during the early 1900s. These portraits were constructed with painted landscapes, fragments of neoclassical architectures, and posed body language. I use my own body in this constructed image. I am interested in activating and embodying the subject of the portrait as well as playing with power dynamics when it comes to seeing and being seen.
The “Tropical Bounds” series are prints where I transform portraits of Filipinos found in the text “Our Islands and Their People” (1899). The pattern on the surface is a porous wall, referencing textiles, fences, armatures for plants, nets - something that divides but allows seepage. The bright pinks and oranges reference exaggerated sunsets from tourist post cards.