Detail of Block Out the Sun

This work emerged from Syjuco’s research into the photographic archives of the 1904 World’s Fair where over 1,200 Filipino “natives” were imported to dance and provide entertainment. The Philippines was featured then as a newly acquired colony of the United States. The artist intervenes in these images by covering, with her own hands, the faces and identities of those captured. This is not only to protect them from exposure to the colonial gaze of the camera but also to register the artist’s presence as part of this continuing legacy as a Filipino-American.