fathers is a series of drypoint prints on handmade Japanese paper that meditates on the denim trousers worn by male family members from a series of family photographs. Being a child in the Philippines in the late 90s and early 2000s, wearing denim meant a certain casualness connected to American rebelliousness and individualism that was not approved of. Through re-drawing family photographs, “fathers” stitches the wound of America’s annexation of the Philippines in 1898 to the series of colonial systems that have affected her family, which presently finds them in and within the so-called multicultural Canada. The title “fathers” hints at the many people who have raised the artist, therefore their consistent presence in her family photographs while her parents chased the American dream abroad. This series was begun at Maldita Estampa in Barcelona, Spain (the country that US formally acquired the Philippines from) as Laruan was confronted with the Spanish colonization of the Philippines and then the subsequent annexation by the US.

fathers, dry point on handmade Japanese paper, 7 x 7 inches, 2021