“Pyramid Schemes”

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

Pyramid of the Sun, Mexico (c.100–200 CE) / Blade Runner (1982), 24 x 25.75 x 14.5 inches
Prang Pyramid, Cambodia (928 CE) / Death Race 2000 (1975), 25 x 25 x 23 inches
Pyramid of Meroë, Sudan (800 BC–100 CE) / Dune (1984), 24 x 24 x 41.25 inches
Tikal Temple 1 (c. 300–900 CE), Guatemala / Rogue One (2016), 23 x 23 x 37.5 inches
Pyramid of Khafre, Egypt (c. 2550 BC) / Stargate (1994), 22.5 x 22.5 x 30.25 inches
Astria Suparak
Bioplastic sculptures, custom pedestals
2026
Commissioned by PRAx. Fabricated by Derek Easton.

Description
Exhibitions
From the series #AsianFutures

Pyramids are deliberately used to signal an alien or futuristic world in many science-fiction films from the 1950s to the present, which supports and spreads the racist idea that people of color are supposedly not intelligent, creative, or capable of developing monumental architecture and sophisticated technology (the enduring conspiracy theory that “aliens built the pyramids”). Those fabricated pyramids appear diminutive in the Pyramid Schemes wall piece and inverted in the related sculptures.

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

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Prang Pyramid, Cambodia (928 CE) / Death Race 2000 (1975)
Bioplastic sculpture, custom pedestal
25 x 25 x 23 inches
2026

The top pyramid is modeled on Prasat Prang, a giant stepped pyramid in northern Cambodia, founded c. 928 CE (Khmer Empire). The inverted pyramid below is the Chet Holifield Federal Building in California, built by a white architect and fan of science fiction, based on historical stepped pyramids. The federal building was a key setting in the sci-fi film Death Race 2000 and is now home to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security—which is currently targeting for deportation Cambodian Americans, among other groups. Cambodian Americans are in this country as refugees as a result of the U.S. intervention in their home country.

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Pyramid of Khafre, Egypt (c. 2550 BC) / Stargate (1994)
Bioplastic sculpture, custom pedestal
22.5 x 22.5 x 30.25 inches
2026

The top half of the sculpture is a replica of the iconic Pyramid of Khafre in Giza, Egypt, which was built by compensated skilled workers fed on high-quality meat—not by slaves, which is a myth propagated by Hollywood. The pyramid below is featured in the 1990s blockbuster film Stargate, whose premise is that a magical alien enslaved ancient Egyptians and is the true mastermind behind the architectural marvels. Stargate is just one of many media productions and conspiracy theories that strip the Global South of the genius, creativity, and advanced skills (including mathematical, scientific, and architectural) of their heritage.

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EXHIBITION

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

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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