The Archive's Fold

In a dark room a large projected photograph glows sepia, a tangle of figures and debris dissolving into grain. Across the corner a pale wall carries columns of text, too small to read, warmed by the projector's spill.
Rows of tiny backlit slides glow amber against black, each a small sepia photograph of faces, houses or crowds, set out like lit windows across a dark night.
Title
The Archive's Fold
Artist
Latipa (Michelle Dizon)
Date
2018
Description
A multi-image slide installation by Latipa (Michelle Dizon) built from photographs of the U.S. colonial and postcolonial Philippines, drawn from archives in the Philippines and the United States, the artist's family albums and the internet. It takes the form of a conversation between the artist's great-great-grandmother in 1905 and a descendant in 2123, both named Latipa; the future Latipa lives after climate catastrophe has made Earth uninhabitable and is traveling to Proxima B. Setting official archival photographs against intimate family images, the work links colonial harm to people and to the environment and traces how its effects outlast colonial rule. It was shown in the City of Los Angeles (COLA) Individual Artist Fellowships exhibition at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in 2018 and at the Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art in 2019.
Artwork Type
Installation
Materiality
Photographic Materials
Audio / Sound
Light
Climate & Ecology Themes
Migration and Displacement
Concepts
Colonialism and Decolonization
Memory and History
Speculative Futures and Imagination
Methods & Approaches
Archival Research
Speculative / Futures Practice
Audience / Engagement Type
Public / General Audience
Location
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, 4800 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
Geographic Scope
Pacific / Transpacific
Rights
Rights held by artist or creator
Website
gibca.se
Affiliated Organizations
Memory and Resistance Laboratory
Discipline / Field
Arts & Design
Item sets
California Art & Climate Archive
UC Riverside
Media
In a dark room a large projected photograph glows sepia, a tangle of figures and debris dissolving into grain. Across the corner a pale wall carries columns of text, too small to read, warmed by the projector's spill.Latipa (Michelle Dizon), The Archive's Fold 1
Rows of tiny backlit slides glow amber against black, each a small sepia photograph of faces, houses or crowds, set out like lit windows across a dark night.Latipa (Michelle Dizon), The Archive's Fold 2 (detail)