Pacita Abad
If My Friends Could See Me Now, 1991
Acrylic, painted canvas, gold yarn on stitched and padded canvas
93.5 x 69 inches
238.8 x 172.7 cm
238.8 x 172.7 cm
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IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE SERIES
Focusing on immigrants to the global North, with particular emphasis on the US, the Immigrant Experience series takes on Abad's incisive questions about the possibilities of solidarity between "third world" cultures, a poignant early-predecessor to the "South-South" discourse of the contemporary. Drawn out of her personal experience as an immigrant many times over during the course of her transnational life, the Immigrant Experience series anticipates and surpasses the limits of contemporary immigration debates by centering the lived experiences of individuals experiencing immigration, and settling into the uncertain condition we know today as the "diasporic." Making work that highlighted both the joys and injustices of this condition was critical to Abad, having been repeatedly, wrongly detained in multiple Western countries due to her status as a dark-skinned Filipina woman.
IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE SERIES
Focusing on immigrants to the global North, with particular emphasis on the US, the Immigrant Experience series takes on Abad's incisive questions about the possibilities of solidarity between "third world" cultures, a poignant early-predecessor to the "South-South" discourse of the contemporary. Drawn out of her personal experience as an immigrant many times over during the course of her transnational life, the Immigrant Experience series anticipates and surpasses the limits of contemporary immigration debates by centering the lived experiences of individuals experiencing immigration, and settling into the uncertain condition we know today as the "diasporic." Making work that highlighted both the joys and injustices of this condition was critical to Abad, having been repeatedly, wrongly detained in multiple Western countries due to her status as a dark-skinned Filipina woman.
Exhibitions
Pacita Abad: Life in the Margins, January 18 – April 5, 2020, Spike Island, Bristol, UK.
Pacita Abad: Artists + Community, November 17, 1994 – February 12, 1995, National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, DC.
American Dream, November 17, 1994 - February 12, 1995, Curated by Angela A. Adams, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
Eight Paths to a Journey: Cultural Identity and the Immigration Experience, September 11 - October 26, 1991, Curated by Mel Watkin, The Ellipse Arts Center, Arlington, VA
