Who Else But Americans…, 2022
Who Else But Americans… (2022), digital print on Epson Enhanced Matte. Folded: 16.5 in x ~18 in/Expanded: 16 in x ~ 8380 in 📷 Mia Nakano
Who Else But Americans... (ongoing), is a series of new multimedia artworks that confront the histories of violence against communities of color often erased in efforts to advance nation building, power, and American exceptionalism. The title of the series, Who Else But Americans... derives from the infamous speech given by Leland Stanford at the Golden Spike ceremony on May 10, 1869 that inaugurated the completion of the first transcontinental railroad but also excluded acknowledgement of 80% of those who labored on it, approximately 12,000 Chinese workers. It is estimated that three Chinese laborers died for every two miles of track laid between the West Coast terminus in Sacramento, CA and Promontory Summit, UT. Our project examines this oft overlooked history to enact an artistic memorial and consider this specific moment amidst the legacy of communities of color being used and reduced to disposable labor in the building of nation and American wealth. This reduction of people to an accumulated history of bodies, stripped of humanity, feels particularly critical in light of the recent murders at Young’s Asian Massage and Gold Spa in Atlanta and the thousands of reported violent hate crimes against Asians and Asian Americans during the past year. Additionally, we are interested in the ways this history must be understood between and among disparate communities of color as we grapple with our respective wounds of racialized violence and conscription into a colonial nation-state and systems of labor, with the ultimate goal of amplifying coalition building movements and breaking down systems that divide us.
Our first artwork in Who Else But Americans Can... is a photographic response, tracing the span of the first transcontinental railroad, 1912 miles, using images pulled from Google maps, archives, public sources, and taken during our own site visits along the route. Beginning in California, we stop every two miles and take three photographs or screenshots (referencing the estimated 3 lives lost for every 2 miles of track laid) capturing images of the landscape in whatever form it may appear—ranging from dense urban centers to wide open spaces. When using online sources, we are confronted with the limits of virtual documentation of the physical world, particularly in sites that are not accessible or quite simply illegible. We consider these moments of abstraction important references to the redactions and erasures of history that we will confront through this performative process. Made of over 2500 photographs Who Else But Americans… is sequenced, printed, and joined together into a large scale sculptural installation that suggests the line of railroad and expands to around 700 feet in length.
Exhibition history:
Reshaping the Narrative: California Perspectives, Mills College Art Museum (2024)
P L A C E: Reckonings by Asian American Artists, ICA San Jose (2024)
Production of Who Else But Americans was supported by a Humanities Facilitating Fund grant from George Washington University and artist-in-residences from The Luminary and Montalvo Arts Center.
images 1-5: installation images at Mills College Art Museum, courtesy of Related Tactics
images 6-9: installation photos by Glen Cheriton, courtesy of ICA San Jose, 2024
images 10-20: studio documentation photos by Mia Nakano
