IMPORT/EXPORT
Animated Digital Video
Running time: 3:05 min
2008

IMPORT/EXPORT attempts to examine three different histories: the history of contract labor in Hawaii, the European conquest of the Pekingese dog and the endangered and rare plant, the Silversword. These three items are drawn together by their connection of having been imported and exported commodities in Western culture; and in order to explore the relationship between history, colonialism, representation and aesthetics by interrogating empirical systems of thought about the nature of existence through the mode of human experience. The piece consists of hand drawn animations, archival photographs and film footage. The audio component to IMPORT/EXPORT is the computer voice-over narration of excerpts out of Michel Foucault’s book, The Order of Things, and Orientalism  by Edward Said. The goal of my work is to create a discourse that questions the nature of representation and history by presenting alternative narratives in order to create a visual and conceptual experience that is engaging, rigorous and thought provoking.