Fixed Focus (Dead Center)

Oakland-based artist Stephanie Syjuco investigates the construction of racialized narratives of American history in this work. Each photograph displays an excerpt from the archival files of Dean Conant Worcester, an early American ethnographic explorer and staunch supporter of American imperialism in the Philippines. At the exact center of each image is a notated correction, evidence of a factual error or typed mistake recorded in the archive. Enlarged, the errors themselves become the central focus, as opposed to the anthropological “findings” that served to support white superiority and early notions of eugenics. By showing these texts as correctible, Syjuco hints at the possibility for a counter-narrative to be applied in the archive. Each image is printed at the standard size of 81/2 x 11 in. to further reference the official form of institutional documents.