*Archipelago*

"The Noguchi Museum continues to celebrate and amplify creative voices in our local Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities with the third annual Open Call for Artist Banners. As an institution founded by Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi, The Noguchi Museum stands in solidarity with AAPI communities and any community targeted by discrimination, oppression, or racism. In 2024, the Museum invited emerging AAPI artists based in New York City to submit designs for the Museum's outdoor banners addressing the theme of "labor and love.""

Archipelago centers the rectangular frame as a motif dually representing the digital interfaces we encounter in contemporary life and the psychological framework through which we perceive others. Each banner features a pair of abstract fauna and flora, which mirror each other in relation to or in opposition with the frame, reflecting the emotional effort required to care for others in spite of perceived faults or misunderstandings. The banners’ collage of disparate elements – the AI-generated jungle landscapes, pixelated image scrap, and indeterminate symbols – embraces the spirit of the Philippines, consisting of over 7,000 islands, as a testament of unity across different peoples, cultures, and languages.

(Proposal for the Noguchi Museum Open Call for Artist Banners 2024)