“This ground-breaking new history of modern art explores the relationship between art and knowledge from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day.”
Tag: 2023
White Robot Tears
“Suparak’s media archaeology disrupts these racialized imaginaries of AI and identifies openings for building future imaginaries otherwise.”
V MAGAZINE: Astria Suparak
“This issue of V ART records Thai-American artist Astria Suparak’s long-term research project ‘Asian futures, without Asians.’ She uses precise language like a scalpel cutting through the ‘human beings’ that Hollywood science fiction films and television are keen to depict.”
Finite Horizon
An amalgamated skyline of Asian futures imagined by white filmmakers. Sourced from sci-fi movies and television shows that depict a vice-ridden, dangerous world overtly marked with elements of East, Southeast, and South Asian architecture.
Asian futures, without Asians multimedia performance
This live cinema work is illustrated with images and clips from futuristic films and TV shows. Accompanied by a live musical soundtrack, Suparak delivers anecdotes, trivia, and documents from the histories of art, architecture, fashion, film, religion, and science.
Ancient Sci-Fi
A set of backdrops containing concepts central to present-day sci-fi and fantasy, highlighting a sliver of the brilliance and beauty of Asian imagination and artistry across six centuries.
On the Neon Horizon
A video essay that takes one of the world-building tics of white science fiction — gratuitous signage in Asian languages — to consider its utopian potential and dystopian applications.
For Ornamental Purposes
GIF-ified glitches of Techno-Orientalist fantasies, this 3-channel video work shows how koi are used to embellish the scenery in Hollywood sci-fi.
Tropicollage
Looping video that collages footage from 30 years of futuristic sci-fi movies and television shows that employ a fetishized tropics trope.
Asian futures, without Asians presentation (online version)
Part critical analysis, part reflective essay and sprinkled throughout with humor, justified anger, and informative morsels, this illustrated presentation examines 60 years of American science fiction cinema through the lens of Asian appropriation and whitewashing.
Virtually Asian
A short video essay that looks at how white science fiction filmmakers fill the backgrounds of their futuristic worlds with hollow Asian figures while the main cast (if not the entirety of their fictional universe’s population) is devoid of actual Asian people.
Asian Futures series
Series of projects, performances, and texts on how white filmmakers envision futures inflected by Asian culture, but devoid of significant Asian people. A visual analysis of 60 years of mainstream science-fiction cinema.
Joanie 4 Jackie
The complete archives of the influential underground film network for female filmmakers has been acquired by The Getty and is now viewable online. A selection of videos is available on the Criterion Channel (2020-Present).
Astria Suparak 