Stephanie Syjuco

4In watching the video on Stephanie Syjuco, one thing that struck me the most is the diversity of conceptual ideas that she integrates into her projects. Every work that she introduced seemed to be very multidimensional and had several layers of meaning for the viewer to process. The main ideas she spoke about that resonated with me were the notions of the authentic versus counterfeit, the connections between the visual, linguistic, and symbolic aspects of her work, and the transition in her approach to addressing politics in her art.

The first project of hers that Syjuco introduced was The Counterfeit Crochet Project, in which she invited a number of crochet artists to select a designer handbag they would like to own but cannot afford, download an image of it, and then using their crochet skills, craft the bag on their own. Syjuco stated that what this project highlighted for her was that the notion of bootlegs or counterfeits is an extension of the idea that there is something such as the authentic. While in the context of The Counterfeit Crochet Project this may seem like a relatively simple idea to comprehend, it raised further questions for me as to why the imitation bags are not labeled “authentic” even though their craftsmanship is unique to the artist who made them. Even a counterfeit bag in reality, with their misspelled logos and slightly modified designs present some degree of creativity and authenticity. Moreover, the larger symbolism of Syjuco’s statement was also quite powerful to me as it relates to the contemporary pop-culture idea of “fakeness.” Almost anything is at risk of being labelled as such, even the most sacrosanct things like friendships (“fake friends”) and personal identity (“fake people”). It makes me wonder how we place such designations of counterfeit or fake onto different things – do we use such distinctions because what lies in front of us objectively differs from the “original” or “authentic”? Or simply because we don’t like it or it doesn’t meet our expectations? I am not sure.

Another thing I found very intriguing about this project was the fact that after it was published, it became a phenomenon, with members of the public sending Syjuco images of their own counterfeited bags. I think this is a powerful testament to how universal her message was. Not just in terms of the authentic / counterfeit dualism, but also the other ideas she addresses such as the hierarchy of the fashion industry and how it implicitly designates who gets to own and wear what we refer to as “high” fashion, and global counterfeiting schemes.

In keeping with the idea of exploring authenticity, I also really enjoyed listening to Syjuco discuss her photo series Cargo Cults in response to the question of what it means to be an authentic Filippino. This idea of an authentic cultural identity is one that deeply resonates with me and a number of people I know, and is one that I have often used as inspiration in my art. Being ethnically Indian but having lived in Singapore for almost my entire life, I often feel as if there is a disconnect between my own identity and what is perceived as “authentically” Indian. Occasionally, I feel like I fit in neither here nor there, as my experiences lie somewhere in the intersection between the two cultures, hence I feel like I can relate to the conflict that Syjuco describes, in the sense of not knowing what it means to be a Singaporean or Indian. Moreover, Syjuco also mentions deriving inspiration for Cargo Cults from historical ethnographic photographs from the Philippines.There were several aspects of this that were inspiring to me such as how she interpreted and transformed the photographs in her own way to explore her identity, but also how  she has evoked the colonial history of the Philippines and in portrayed how the strange often voyeuristic lens of ethnographic photography was used as a tool to reinforce it, while simultaneously conveying how the same medium can be used to reclaim national or ethnic identity. 

It reminds me of a few photos by Indian photographers that accomplish the same. One such example are photos taken after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by Narayan Virkar. (The following description is a little graphic, if you would rather not read it, skip to the next paragraph highlighted in yellow! 😊) The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place during British colonial rule in India, when Acting Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered troops of the British Indian Army to fire their rifles into a crowd of unarmed Indian civilians in Jallianwala Bagh in Punjab – an open area of around six to seven acres, surrounded by 10 foot high walls on all sides with only 5 narrow entrances (some with lockable gates) opening into it – for approximately ten minutes, killing at least 379 people and injuring at least 1200 more. In his photos, Virkar documents the survivors of the massacre next to the bullet holes that killed their loved ones, in the same image portraying the horrific adversity faced by the Indians in their struggle against the British Raj, but also their tenacity in doing so.

Another set of photos that it reminds me of is Annu Palakunnathu Matthew’s series called An Indian from India, in which she parallels Native American ethnographic photographs with self-portraits to show how the different visual representations of vocabulary used to describe the two cultures.

Apart from this, I was also inspired by how Syjuco speaks of the politics represented in her work. One way she does so is through the intersection between politics and process in her art. In discussing how she has been influenced by the protests occurring in the Bay Area, she mentions using a banner that reads “Become Ungovernable” as an element of her exhibition Citizens. I really liked listening to her description of why the banner itself is becoming ungovernable, as I found this linguistic connection between art and politics to be quite surprising and entertaining in some ways, but also a powerful symbol of what she calls art’s capability to act as a “recording device” that documents subjective viewpoints of political strife. Moreover, her use of chroma key (which is generally used to manipulate backgrounds) as the “literal subject” of her work, being symbolic of how politics has moved from the background of people’s lives into the foreground to become a fact of life that cannot be ignored, is also a very interesting concept to contemplate as she reflects politics not just in the finished products of her art (where one would normally expect to see it), but in the methods and techniques that she employs.

Overall, I found Syjuco’s work to provide several ideas to draw inspiration from, and to consider more thoughtfully in the future, with her processes and the loaded meaning contained within them being the most prominent to me. I think the most significant takeaway from the video is that the evolution that her work has undergone, not only reflects her own development as an artist but has taken a direction that conveys the evolution of art as a whole, wherein politics or more broadly the state of modern civilisation, simply cannot be ignored.

Provided References:
Stephanie Syjuco

Work from:
24th Nov 2020 – Daily Vitamins Assignment
Time with Professor Mike Rader