Nationalities: Eleven Filipino women in native dress (from the American Counterpoint project, Alexander Alland, Sr., Photoprints, circa 1940, National Museum of American History, Archives Center, NMAH.AC.0204)

Stephanie Syjuco, Nationalities: Eleven Filipino women in native dress (from the American Counterpoint project, Alexander Alland, Sr., Photoprints, circa 1940, National Museum of American History, Archives Center, NMAH.AC.0204), 2021, archival pigment inkjet, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund, in partnership with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, 2022.24.1
Stephanie Syjuco, Nationalities: Eleven Filipino women in native dress (from the American Counterpoint project, Alexander Alland, Sr., Photoprints, circa 1940, National Museum of American History, Archives Center, NMAH.AC.0204), 2021, archival pigment inkjet, sheet: 38 3⁄4 × 56 in. (98.4 × 142.2 cm) framed: 41 3⁄4 × 59 1⁄2 × 2 1⁄4 in. (106 × 151.1 × 5.7 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund, in partnership with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, 2022.24.1

Artwork Details

Title
Nationalities: Eleven Filipino women in native dress (from the American Counterpoint project, Alexander Alland, Sr., Photoprints, circa 1940, National Museum of American History, Archives Center, NMAH.AC.0204)
Artist
Date
2021
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 38 3⁄4 × 56 in. (98.4 × 142.2 cm) framed: 41 3⁄4 × 59 1⁄2 × 2 1⁄4 in. (106 × 151.1 × 5.7 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund, in partnership with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
Mediums Description
archival pigment inkjet
Classifications
Highlights
Subjects
  • Architecture Interior
  • Figure group — female
Object Number
2022.24.1
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2022.24.1

Artwork Description

In these works, Stephanie Syjuco manipulates archival material she photographed in 2019 as a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow at the National Museum of American History. Her discoveries there led her to consider the role of such collections in shaping American identity and history.

The source for Nationalities was Alexander Alland's American Counterpoint photographs from the 1940s. Syjuco highlights her engagement with that material through the exposure of a photograph, shown in the box where she found it. The source for Reverse View: KKK was the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana. Wedged between the subjects "Ladies Clothes" and "Kitchen Appliances," Syjuco found a folder containing pamphlets, correspondence, and photographs recording Ku Klux Klan activities. Here, Syjuco's engagement is made visible through her blockage. By exposing the backsides of these materials, Syjuco provides a counternarrative to white supremacy.

Works by this artist (744 items)

View all artworks
William Zorach, Seated Girl (with hands under legs), 1930, cast and patinated plaster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Tessim Zorach and Dahlov Ipcar, 1971.449.8
Seated Girl (with hands under legs)
Artist
Date1930
cast and patinated plaster
On view
William Zorach, Head of Abraham Walkowitz, 1943, plaster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Tessim Zorach and Dahlov Ipcar, 1968.154.130
Head of Abraham Walkowitz
Artist
Date1943
plaster
On view
William Zorach, Head of Robert Schwarzenbach, ca. 1930, marble, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Tessim Zorach and Dahlov Ipcar, 1968.154.150
Head of Robert Schwarzenbach
Artist
Dateca. 1930
marble
On view
William Zorach, Head of Eudora, ca. 1960, cast and painted plaster on wood base, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift from the collection of the Zorach children, 1976.145.47
Head of Eudora
Artist
Dateca. 1960
cast and painted plaster on wood base
On view

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