“Pyramid Schemes”

Pyramid Schemes
Astria Suparak
Digital collage on vinyl, 30′ wide x 12′ high
2026
Commissioned by PRAx

Bioplastic sculptures:
Pyramid of the Sun, Mexico (c.100–200) / Blade Runner (1982), 2′ x 2’1.75″ x 1’2.5″
Prang Pyramid, Cambodia (928) / Death Race 2000 (1975), 2’1″ x 2’1″ x 1’11”
Pyramid of Meroë, Sudan (800 BC–100 AD) / Dune (1984), 1′ x 1′ x 3’5.25″
Tikal Temple 1 (c.300–900), Guatemala / Rogue One (2016), 1’11” x 1’11” x 3’1.5″
Pyramid of Khafre, Egypt (c.2550 BC) / Stargate (1994), 1’10.5″ x 1’10.5″ x 2’6.25″
2026
Commissioned by PRAx. Fabricated by Derek Easton.

Description
Exhibitions
From the series #AsianFutures

Pyramid Schemes draws upon imagery from science-fiction films from the 1950s to the present, where pyramids are deliberately used to signal an alien or futuristic world. This contributes to and spreads the racist idea that people of color are supposedly not intelligent, creative, or capable of developing monumental architecture & sophisticated technology (the enduring conspiracy theory that “aliens built the pyramids”).

Hovering over these fabrications and projections are the real-life pyramids conceived, designed, and built by humans living across ancient Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

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EXHIBITIONS

Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts (PRAx), Oregon State University, OR

A Tomorrow: Monsters and Relics from Asia and Africa
Curated by Ashley Stull Meyers
March 31–June 13, 2026

In A Tomorrow, three artists explore how fragments of Gods, relics, and regalia from non-Western cultures — specifically Asia and Africa — have been appropriated to construct visions of the future. In science-fiction filmmaking, interior design, video games, and similar “future-oriented” aesthetics, Asian and African cultures make cameo appearances. In these forms, they may be diverted from their rightful frameworks in order to construct a sense of “worldliness” or fashionability.

Artists Astria Suparak, Sameer Farooq, and Morehshin Allahyari offer an alternative vision by examining, deconstructing and re-ordering the layering of Asian and African forms in western visions of the future. Artforms like video essays, collage, 3D simulation and other mediums becoming canvases for exploring and course-correcting the cultural processes that associate Asia and Africa with exoticized or otherworldly tomorrows.

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