If Not Here, Then Where?

2021—2023

If Not Here, Then Where? builds off of and converses with The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s digital archive (CC0 dataset). The images are made first by sourcing works available through the “open access images” filter in the MET web collection, then printed and constructed into delicate paper mobiles that are finally rephotographed. The project expands on the concerns around post-colonialism, curating within an archive, and the slippery idea of “ownership” in virtual spaces where art objects and images proliferate and evolve outside of their original/historical contexts. Silent Face Projects published the monograph by the same name in 2023.

Collections include: The Watson Library at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Special Collections at the University of Colorado, The University of Michigan, Decker Library at Maryland Institute College of Art, Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame, Moriarty Library at Lesley University, Olin Library at Cornell University.