Filipino American Artist Directory, 2015-2021

Filipino American Artist Directory was a participatory artist project and publication to connect and make visible the broad community of visual artists of Filipino heritage living and working in and between the United States and the Philippines. Through a geographic survey of creative work being produced in the scope of US empire, it aimed to turn history back on itself in the retelling of Filipino American experience as told by Filipino American artists and be a catalyst for radical change in the art world. It was inspired by the the book The Decolonized Eye by Sarita Echavez See.

Through the directory, my goal was to reclaim the site of the 1904 World’s Fair by compiling a list of 1,200 artists actively exhibiting their work between the United States and the Philippines, as opposed to being exhibited. I produced three publications in 2017, 2018, and 2019, organized and participated in exhibitions and events across the country, commissioned essays and artwork, and maintained an active social media presence as part of my practice. After running the project for six years I realized many artists were more interested in the promotional aspect of the project than social justice, and I refocused my efforts elsewhere. The project led in part to the Philippine Village Historical Site.