Filipino American Artist Directory — Janna Añonuevo Langholz

Filipino American Artist Directory, 2015-2021

Filipino American Artist Directory was a participatory artist project and publication to connect and make visible the broad community of visual artists of Filipino heritage living and working in and between the United States and the Philippines. Through a geographic survey of creative work being produced in the scope of US empire, it aimed to turn history back on itself in the retelling of Filipino American experience as told by Filipino American artists and be a catalyst for radical change in the art world. It was inspired by the the book The Decolonized Eye by Sarita Echavez See.

Through the directory, my goal was to reclaim the site of the 1904 World’s Fair by compiling a list of 1,200 artists actively exhibiting their work between the United States and the Philippines, as opposed to being exhibited. I produced three publications in 2017, 2018, and 2019, organized and participated in exhibitions and events across the country, commissioned essays and artwork, and maintained an active social media presence as part of my practice. The project led in part to the creation of the Philippine Village Historical Site.