Stephanie Syjuco: Rogue States
September 6 - December 29, 2019 / Contemporary Art Museum St. LouisStephanie Syjuco explores the complicated ways in which we understand such politically charged concepts as citizen, immigrant, nationhood, and identity. The title installation, Rogue States, is made up of twenty-two reproduced flags originally used in Hollywood films (Die Hard 2, Ace Ventura, and Coming to America, among them) to represent fictional enemy nations through the lens of the West. Central to the exhibition are two platform installations: Neutral Calibration Studies (Ornament + Crime) and Dodge and Burn (Visible Storage). These contemporary “still lifes” contain hundreds of images and objects, many taken from stock photos and Google Image searches. Each installation contains a multiplicity of coded narratives of empire and colonialism told through art history, photography, Modernism, and ethnography. Stephanie Syjuco: Rogue States is organized for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis by Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Chief Curator, with Misa Jeffereis, Assistant Curator.
The exhibition is generously supported by Nion McEvoy; Janet Mohle-Boetani, MD; Seth Ammerman; and the Whitaker Foundation. The Artist Talk is generously supported by the Robert Lehman Foundation. Special thanks to Catharine Clark Gallery, RYAN LEE Gallery, and Zane Williams, and to The Luminary for hosting Stephanie Syjuco’s St. Louis artist residency. The exhibition is part of Innovations in Textiles STL 2019.
All images: Stephanie Syjuco: Rouge States, installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, September 6-December 29, 2019. Photos: Dusty Kessler.