Archipelago

Senior Thesis

Nov 8-12, 2022

41 Cooper Sq, New York, NY 10003

When my great grandfather was 16, he fled mainland China by boat. He reached the Philippines with no intention that he would one day be proud to be a Filipino citizen, own a bakery business and meet my great-grandmother. During World War II, he was slapped multiple times by a Japanese officer for hosting a game of Mahjong. Although, I haven't met my great-grandfather, I would like to know what it must have felt like to feel that pain. What's so striking about the Philippines playing a key role in the rise of Western colonial mercantilism in Asia is its abundance of natural resources, its geographical location, and its people. First, what makes an archipelago a country? The word, archipelago, means more than just a group of islands. "The archipelagic functions as a mode of thinking or existing that allows us to conceptualize multiple locations or spaces that are simultaneously autonomous but act in concert. Archipelagoes are imagined not as peripheral or marginal geo-formations, but as models for new modes of affiliation and transformation (Stephens and Martínez-San Miguel 9)." I've been thinking about Asia/Pacific cultural production as it relates to globalization. From referencing popular media and icons, mecha anime to Manny Pacquiao, the works in the exhibition speak directly to the impact of cultural production in a globalized modernity. The Philippines, from the extinction of the Spanish Empire to the ascendancy of the USA to global imperial hegemony, has made an impact. It's now a matter of playing the game. 

(More images available upon request.)