Ryan Frigillana

Visions of Eden | Visions of Eden presents a historical account of a family’s journey as first-generation Filipino immigrants in America. Through the process of re-contextualization, the project weaves together original photography, archived materials, video stills, and illustrations, mimicking a narrative loosely structured on the Hebrew Bible—the artist’s response to a heavy religious upbringing.

Veiled illustrations appropriated from children’s Bible-story books serve as conflicting acts of preservation and erasure, holding on and letting go. The barely legible images—informing much of Frigillana’s childhood—personify dissociation, distance, and the perishing of memory. Paired with a repurposed family archive and laden scenes of domesticity, the resulting body of work evokes an Eden in decay, questioning the fallible notion of paradise upheld by the mythos of both the American Dream and Christian doctrine.

A meditation on familial identity, religion, death, and aging—this hybrid ‘portrait’ contemplates history while examining the values being fostered in the home today. ryanfrigillana.com