Christine Imperial
Christine Imperial
Christine Imperial; Proof of Legal Presence, 2022; Inkjet print; Dimensions variable
Christine Imperial; yours is a history of being subdued, 2022; Printed transparency, Lite-Brite lightbox; 14 x 11 x 9 in.
Christine Imperial; yours is a history of being subdued, 2022; Printed transparency, Lite-Brite lightbox; 14 x 11 x 9 in.
PROOF OF LEGAL PRESENCE
Excerpt from Mistaken for an Empire: A Memoir in Tongues by Christine Imperial. Used by permission of Mad Creek Books, an imprint of The Ohio State University Press
Proof of Legal Presence asks the subject to locate a geographical and cultural point that the other can reference. At first glance, the question “Where do you call home?” might seem identical to the question “Where are you from?” To ask the question only once fails to reflect the multiple ways in which the question can be read, answered, accepted, and refused: “Where do you call home?” not only asks for a home country, but asks for something beyond the coordinates of a map. Read another way, the question also asks, “From where do you call home?”
The work welcomes (mis)translations of the question as they perform the experience of relearning and mislearning language. Accompanying the question is the excess of statements rejecting the expectation of a single answer.
YOURS IS A HISTORY OF BEING SUBDUED
Excerpt from Mistaken for an Empire: A Memoir in Tongues by Christine Imperial. Used by permission of Mad Creek Books, an imprint of The Ohio State University Press
The repetition and fragmentation of yours is a history of being subdued confronts the viewer with the reality of the Philippines as both past colony and neo-colony whose people continue to be subdued: as oppressed, as colonized; as indictment of the ways in which Filipinos themselves – specifically those in power – have willingly subdued to foreign oppressors; and ultimately, subdued as submissive and unassuming: a disposition undertaken by Filipinos to evade deportation and exile, which breeds unquestioned obedience to authority, and/or apathy towards change.
BIO
Christine Imperial is a Filipino-American writer and poet. Her debut book, Mistaken for an Empire: A Memoir in Tongues, will be published with Ohio University State Press as the 2021 Gournay Prize Winner. Christine is a PhD student at UC Davis, as the Dean’s Distinguished Graduate Fellow. Most recently, she was awarded the Hawker Prize for Southeast Asian Poetry by Sing Lit Station (LTD). Her work has been featured in POETRY, TLDTD, Inverted Syntax, among others. She holds a BFA from Ateneo de Manila University, where she was a recipient of the Loyola Schools Award for the Arts in poetry, and an MFA from CalArts, where she earned the Emi Kuriyama Thesis Award. She was a 2021 CalArts REEF Residency fellow.
@SPAMLIKELY________
CIMPERIAL.COM