Stephanie Syjuco

Partial Anarchival Index (Working Platform), 2022, paper prints, wooden platform, 240 x 192 x 24 inches 

“My work recycles, copies, resuscitates, warps, reframes, rips off, plunders, and hinges on existing forms and historical archives because the past is still unfinished business. I work in large-scale installation, utilizing photo and image-based processes to create densely layered works that are a result of deep research and archival investigation. By examining institutional, governmental, and museum archives and collections, I focus on how power manifests in visible and invisible ways—from American colonial regimes to overseas authoritarian legacies, in an attempt to “talk back” to the official narrative. At stake for me is how to form an alternative to a codified, exclusionary definition of nationhood and citizenship. I want my work to act as a catalyst—a way to reframe what has come before, so we can envision ourselves out of what has been defined as settled history.” – Stephanie Syjuco, 2025

Stephanie Syjuco (B.1974 Manilla, Philippines) works in photography, sculpture, and installation, moving from handmade and craft-inspired mediums to digital editing and archive excavations. Recently, she has focused on how photography and image-based processes are implicated in the construction of exclusionary narratives of history and citizenship. Born in the Philippines, she is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, The Getty Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. She is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and resides in Oakland, California.