As We Mourn Other Suns

This work comes from my continued interrogation of the histories of American Empire. I am particularly looking at either end of the hyphen in the demonym Filipino-American, both in its inception and what makes it possible to exist as it does today (i.e. its maintenance). Additionally, this body of work comes from a continued rumination on the conditions of the systems that support the human body (Both exterior: State and interior: family); a contemplation on the ongoing processes involved in the colonization of a lived experience; and an ongoing interrogation of the role of images in constructing, re-constructing, and ultimately policing (and self-policing) an identity articulation. With this being said, these images have been an embrace of playing with the tools I mean to critique. While I am heavily invested in the mechanics of the identification photograph, I have also been questioning the meaning of America (and the Philippines) in my work both as subject and as imaginary. The trafficking and circulation of images are also of interest to me. At the forefront of the project is the question: How can photography images be made and used to make empire more navigable?