STEPHANIE MISA

UNITITLED (SAKADA), 2012/2022

Untitled (Sakada), examines Philippine- Hawaii relations at the turn of the 19th century while both were American Colonies. The installation weaves these intersecting narratives through family pictures, a video piece, a pressed vinyl record, and research material.

In Untitled (Sakada), we hear the hula song “Little Brown Gal”, composed in 1935 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The problematic lyrics are interspersed with the voice of the artist’s
grandmother, who grew up in Hawaii in a time when it was a US colony, and not an official state. Originally from the Philippines, the family was relocated to Hawaii in 1920 by the US-led Philippine colonial government so that the artist’s great grandfather Cayetano Ligot could act as the Philippines’ first Labor Commissioner in Hawaii.

The colonial connection established a commodity: knowledgeable farmers from the sugar plantations in the Philippines, previously run by Spanish colonizers, were capitalized on by the US to work on the sugarcane plantations in its new acquisition of Hawaii. The accompanying video merges ethnographic archival footage (a commentary on the colonial movement shown by speeding up and slowing down both image and sound) with images of the brutal Hanapepe worker’s strike and Misa’s personal family photographs.

Untitled (Sakada) was shown within the “Whiteness as Property” exhibition curated by Ana Hoffner ex-Prvulovic* on February 6- June 6 2022 with Angela Anderson, Peggy Buth, Tania Candiani, Danica Daki?, Anna Dau?íková, Fokus Grupa, Robert Gabris, Lungiswa Gqunta, Laure M. Hiendl, Hristina Ivanoska, Karrabing Film Collective, Stephanie Misa, Elaine Mitchener, Elizabeth Povinelli, Ines Schaber, and the Widows of Marikana

A former iteration was the artist's graduate diploma show at the Kurzbauergasse 2, Sculpture Studios, Acadmey of Fine Arts Vienna in 2012.

Photos by Daniel Hill and M. Nagl 2022

http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_dsc5130.jpg
installation view
Künstlerhaus Wien, 2022
http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_dsc5175.jpg
installation view
Künstlerhaus Wien, 2022
http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_dsc5138.jpg
installation view
Künstlerhaus Wien, 2022
http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_dsc5137.jpg
installation view
Künstlerhaus Wien, 2022
http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_dsc5209.jpg
installation view
Künstlerhaus Wien, 2022
http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_whiteness-as-property-28cmnaglsmall.jpg
installation view
Künstlerhaus Wien, 2022
http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_juicyfruit01.jpg
family archive
Künstlerhaus Wien, 2022
http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_01misasakada.jpg
installation view
Diploma show, 2012
http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_sakada02.jpg
installation view
Diploma show, 2012
http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_misadetail01_v2.jpg
installation view
Diploma show, 2012
http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_sakada01.jpg
installation view
Diploma show, 2012
http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_misadetail04.jpg
installation view
Diploma show, 2012
http://www.stephaniemisa.com/files/gimgs/23_sakada05.jpg
installation view
Diploma show, 2012
Built with Indexhibit