"16651A (Hosokawa William), 24133C (Tashima Takayuki), 08 (Granada)" by Sarah Fukami

These photographs from the Stephen H Hart Library at the History Museum show Colorado’s unique connection to the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. Governer Ralph L Carr declared the state a sanctuary for those leaving the West Coast to avoid incarceration, but Amache, one of ten concentration camps, was also built in Granada, Colorado. The War Relocation Authority commissioned Tom Parker to document the camp, and I have combined his work with government data collected on the interned. The photos are also obscured by a fence motif, representing the literal borders of their unlawful imprisonment. Together, they encourage viewers to reevaluate history and to transcend insular beliefs taught to us by the oppressors.

Artist's Bio:

I was born and raised in Colorado and received a BFA with honors from the University of Denver in 2014. My work revolves around the formation of identity and perception of history, particularly in relation to the immigrant experience. The internment of my Japanese-American family during World War II piqued my interest in the topics of ethnicity, nationality and the identity crises that occur when they conflict. Beginning with the use of personal resources such as photographs, objects and documents, my work has extended to the larger context of Japanese-American history by delving through government photographic archives and investigating the stories of nameless Japanese-American citizens. This has also led to an interest in the dissemination of history, and how it is manipulated and understood throughout time. Much of my work is done on Plexiglas, a material that allows me to layer several aspects of a subject while simultaneously delineating them physically between surfaces. This allows the viewer to focus on the individual facets, as well as step back and view the work as a whole. As my work progresses, I hope to address issues of identity and history that continually reach outward in an attempt to grasp a better understanding of human perception and experience.