{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1791621"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1791621/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PD7572/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PD7572/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PD7572","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PD7571","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PD7570","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PD7569","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1791621/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1791621","accessionNumber":"PH.40-2025","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"Pileup (Brass Bells)","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"Pileup (Brass Bells)","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Stephanie Syjuco began Pileup as she was searching for the presence of the Philippines as an American colony in American national archives. She poses the critical question ‘where are we, and what do we look like within these American archives?’ Through her physical collages, which layer a dense accumulation of materials, Syjuco reflects the overwhelming nature of museum collections and her experience of navigating archives. The work interrogates systems of classification and categorization, highlighting how photography and archives have played a pivotal role in shaping racialized and exclusionary national narratives.She explains: ‘I wasn’t interested in a heritage study, where I could find a cultural connection with my “identity”. I was attempting the opposite, which was to see how the empire sees us.’ ","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Stephanie Syjuco","id":"AUTH405539"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Stephanie Syjuco is a Filipino-born American artist who works across photography, sculpture and installation to investigate the intersections of economies and empire. Her methods range from handmade, craft-based constructions to digital manipulation and critical explorations of institutional archives. "}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"},{"text":"Collages","id":"THES49040"},{"text":"Colonialism and empire","id":"THES253004"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DOP","id":"THES291628"},"images":["2025PD7572","2025PD7571","2025PD7570","2025PD7569"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"101","id":"THES49933"},"free":"","case":"WE","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photographs","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2021","earliest":"2021-01-01","latest":"2021-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchase funded by the Photographs Acquisition Group","dimensions":[],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph by Stephanie Syjuco, 'Pileup (Brass Bells)', 2021, Hand-assembled pigmented inkjet prints on Hahnemuhle Baryta paper","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Cut Out: A Feminist History of Photo Collage, Montage and Assemblage (T&H, V&A publishing, spring 2026)\r\n\r\nStephanie Syjuco began Pileup while delving into Filipino histories within American national archives and public collections. In her search for America’s colonial representations of the Philippines and its people, she poses the critical question ‘where are we, and what do we look like within these American archives?’ Through her physical collages, which layer a dense accumulation of materials, Syjuco reflects the overwhelming nature of museum collections and her experience of navigating archives. The work interrogates systems of classification and categorization, highlighting how photography and archives have played a pivotal role in shaping racialized and exclusionary national narratives.","date":{"text":"03/12/2025","earliest":"2025-12-03","latest":"2025-12-03"}},{"text":"American Photographs display, May 2025 - May 2027\n\nSyjuco’s Pileups is interested in photography’s place in colonial histories. The work examines how photography and digital imaging have shaped racialised, exclusionary narratives of American history and citizenship. Working with archival material from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Syjuco interrogates legacies of immigration and globalisation through a contemporary lens.","date":{"text":"19/08/2025","earliest":"2025-08-19","latest":"2025-08-19"}}],"partNumbers":["PH.40-2025"],"accessionNumberNum":"40","accessionNumberPrefix":"PH","accessionYear":2025,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-13","recordCreationDate":"2024-11-28","availableToBook":false}}