Aldrich Video Series is a sequence of three solo presentations of video art. Each artist exemplifies a different approach to telling stories. Their distinct practices provide insights into the diverse methods at work in contemporary video art including improvisation, animation, and archival research.

Maya Jeffereis is an artist and filmmaker whose practice examines overlooked histories, weaving together narratives of resilience, solidarity, and rematriation. Fields Fallen from Distant Songs, 2023, builds upon the artist’s great-grandparents’ experience as Japanese sugarcane plantation workers in Hawai'i, while Passages II, 2024, surveys the political and cultural implications of Western expansion among islands in the Pacific and Caribbean.

Fields Fallen from Distant Songs, 2023, is centered on the artist’s great-grandparents’ experience as Japanese contracted laborers on Hawaiian sugarcane plantations during the early twentieth century. The film collapses time through the integration of archival footage of plantation workers, Jeffereis’ grandfather’s family videos from the 1960s, and her own documentation of the eruption of Hawaiʻi’s Kīlauea volcano in 2023. Throughout the film lines of contemporary Hawaiʻian poetry flutter across the frames, while an audio track of Japanese folk songs (holehole bushi) drifts over the visuals. The result is both a haunting reminder of a colonial past and a hopeful tribute to restoring relations with ancestral lands.

Taking a broadened perspective, Passages II, 2024, surveys the political and cultural implications of Western expansion amid Island territories such as Hawaiʻi, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Considering the islands’ shared history of US imperialism, the film emphasizes the ocean as a unifying force, joining together a collective legacy of resistance and understanding.

Maya Jeffereis was born in Los Angeles. She currently lives and works in New York, NY.

Maya Jeffereis' presentation is curated by Caitlin Monachino, Curatorial and Publications Manager.