Laborer, 2018 Pigment Print 20x30”
Golden Glove, 2018 Antique Stereograph + Pigment Print on board
In Transit, 2018 Pigment prints
Red Soil, 2018 Digital Collage, Pigment Print 20x30”
LoC 89709172, 2018 Antique Stereograph + Pigment Print on board
1910/2010 Census, 2018 hydrostone, lacquer, acrylic, plastic and wood
Fruits of Labor connects the golden years of U.S. immigration with today’s crisis. I use my own family’s 1914 journey from Okinawa to American pineapple plantations in Hawai’i to illustrate nostalgia regarding our migrant ancestors contrasted with contemporary questions about our anti-immigrant culture.
In Transit is a wall of interconnected images that shows the journey of pineapple from farm to table. There is a working clock and images of constructed packaged foods. Oceanic imagery hang from the wall and lay on the floor. As one moves through the installation, the activity shifts from Asian agricultural laborers to White consumption of exotic juices and pineapple upside down cakes.
Semiotics of a Pineapple Upside Down Cake shows a white appearing woman baking while her immigrant counterpart farms the fields. In the overlap, the body of the cake-maker is actually composed of/or encases the laborer.
The work manipulates historic and contemporary mediums to blend the stories of yesterday with today. For example, an antique stereograph can be held to show a color image of a golden work glove held high in a fist.
Fruits of Labor asks viewers to question the roll of American immigration, labor and consumption.