https://mayajeffereis.com Maya Jeffereis Fri, 31 Oct 2025 02:18:05 +0000 https://mayajeffereis.com en https://mayajeffereis.com/Front-page Sun, 02 Apr 2023 00:56:23 +0000 Maya Jeffereis https://mayajeffereis.com/Front-page Land of Eternal Summer <img width="8598" height="5732" width_o="8598" height_o="5732" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/54cf8e53d6c04d6e892796dc0958f9dd0d61b69e0c7405ee3dfc70554ff3a424/icsp_017_2-copy.jpg" data-mid="245331651" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/54cf8e53d6c04d6e892796dc0958f9dd0d61b69e0c7405ee3dfc70554ff3a424/icsp_017_2-copy.jpg" /> An experimental film with fragmented images of passenger ships, families, and migrants in fields flickering&nbsp; alongside translated excerpts of tanka poems written by Japanese laborers in Brazil and voiced by their descendants. Passages II <img width="1500" height="1125" width_o="1500" height_o="1125" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e1f09122175c7b939d5724c6b2101c8a362daf50a4ff7892278672417e4f1b4c/03_While-my-tears-flow-as-I-water-the-canefield_2024.jpg" data-mid="245331654" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e1f09122175c7b939d5724c6b2101c8a362daf50a4ff7892278672417e4f1b4c/03_While-my-tears-flow-as-I-water-the-canefield_2024.jpg" /> An experimental video installation that considers oceanic thinking as means to connect related histories of exploitation and resistance between islands in the Pacific and Caribbean. Fields Fallen from Distant Songs <img width="1000" height="667" width_o="1000" height_o="667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f47f543fc90f6221141cf8b123467432a103b6381e939e522e7ebbfd8f35c763/Jeffereis_Maya_02.jpg" data-mid="245331666" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f47f543fc90f6221141cf8b123467432a103b6381e939e522e7ebbfd8f35c763/Jeffereis_Maya_02.jpg" /> Interweaving folk songs and ghostly images, this short film poetically and enigmatically explores the past through a present day gaze. Passages I <img width="1500" height="844" width_o="1500" height_o="844" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cfa9bb1f61b3aca2a634f86f6bf5a02a6015b1765bd2b8f338396e1f36cd19ad/08_PassagesI_2023.jpg" data-mid="245331283" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cfa9bb1f61b3aca2a634f86f6bf5a02a6015b1765bd2b8f338396e1f36cd19ad/08_PassagesI_2023.jpg" /> This experimental film made by intervening on archival documents through hand-processing 16mm film is projected onto a sugar glass screen.Silhouettes Remain <img width="4941" height="3705" width_o="4941" height_o="3705" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/de3d17c135c05f78b80c4b294547486a9b5e10ed262a3380a7898bf8a277d498/Only-Silhouettes-Remain--Maya-Jeffereis-DSF6636.jpg" data-mid="173939486" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/de3d17c135c05f78b80c4b294547486a9b5e10ed262a3380a7898bf8a277d498/Only-Silhouettes-Remain--Maya-Jeffereis-DSF6636.jpg" /> Drawing on an assembled collection of images of European Orientalist paintings depicting women, Jeffereis’ video employs digital editing techniques as both a critical examination of colonial fantasies and a speculation on liberatory possibilities. The Moment before a Dream <img width="1500" height="844" width_o="1500" height_o="844" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1351e8a2e22cf0743c5f1052b082a138f84f883ba9efb6029946212e445f1814/01_The-Moment-Before-a-Dream_2022.jpg" data-mid="173939028" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1351e8a2e22cf0743c5f1052b082a138f84f883ba9efb6029946212e445f1814/01_The-Moment-Before-a-Dream_2022.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="844" width_o="1500" height_o="844" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2032dd948d621d8718c09f601645ec7fced6c7488ec33fd7b23d43a6a1ca0593/02_The-Moment-Before-a-Dream_2022.jpg" data-mid="173939029" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2032dd948d621d8718c09f601645ec7fced6c7488ec33fd7b23d43a6a1ca0593/02_The-Moment-Before-a-Dream_2022.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="844" width_o="1500" height_o="844" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f22c488c5e530e954732fa2241a37f51f6ce67445e20acd0a294084c1d68a5a1/03_The-Moment-Before-a-Dream_2022.jpg" data-mid="173939030" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f22c488c5e530e954732fa2241a37f51f6ce67445e20acd0a294084c1d68a5a1/03_The-Moment-Before-a-Dream_2022.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="563" width_o="1000" height_o="563" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2c2b2ec6fd7df2f153bcfe4755219de4f1a578bd4e262e80556f3b1ee93efb07/Jeffereis_Maya_03.jpg" data-mid="173939465" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2c2b2ec6fd7df2f153bcfe4755219de4f1a578bd4e262e80556f3b1ee93efb07/Jeffereis_Maya_03.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="563" width_o="1000" height_o="563" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f6d040d3e91f7a1bc08b0077ef6978f932336ffd17237848476b46b645a09e7/Jeffereis_Maya_05.jpg" data-mid="173939467" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9f6d040d3e91f7a1bc08b0077ef6978f932336ffd17237848476b46b645a09e7/Jeffereis_Maya_05.jpg" /> <img width="3600" height="2400" width_o="3600" height_o="2400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/14535b4add8c33f31752900f31318cabc272be63bef46f37a627957d8037e7e0/kolinmendezphoto-bkm-art-history-happy-hour-2022.11.17-from-monet-to-morisot-079-8868.jpg" data-mid="173941646" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/14535b4add8c33f31752900f31318cabc272be63bef46f37a627957d8037e7e0/kolinmendezphoto-bkm-art-history-happy-hour-2022.11.17-from-monet-to-morisot-079-8868.jpg" /> <img width="3600" height="2400" width_o="3600" height_o="2400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/15d6fa893c6499997f83c16ce29e37ee6bdd8538a762033b771ff42d95597983/kolinmendezphoto-bkm-art-history-happy-hour-2022.11.17-from-monet-to-morisot-080-8872.jpg" data-mid="173941716" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/15d6fa893c6499997f83c16ce29e37ee6bdd8538a762033b771ff42d95597983/kolinmendezphoto-bkm-art-history-happy-hour-2022.11.17-from-monet-to-morisot-080-8872.jpg" /> The Moment before a Dream is a film and performance lecture that rewrites archival spaces of darkness as sites of emancipation, refuge, and reinvention for the women put on display in ethnographic exhibitions at colonial world fairs.&nbsp; Seeing Water Lilies <img width="1000" height="563" width_o="1000" height_o="563" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/093d97d87025585f1e4f548930de058a20b004bab7f023e59a0b404091e871d5/Jeffereis_Maya_01.jpg" data-mid="173992727" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/093d97d87025585f1e4f548930de058a20b004bab7f023e59a0b404091e871d5/Jeffereis_Maya_01.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="563" width_o="1000" height_o="563" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eaa791acdc36083323b62e79fe917373389016e2f0572a35962d4aa95de62e66/Jeffereis_Maya_06.jpg" data-mid="173939443" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eaa791acdc36083323b62e79fe917373389016e2f0572a35962d4aa95de62e66/Jeffereis_Maya_06.jpg" /> Seeing Water Lilies is a three-channel video that reflects on what it means to see art in the absence of sight, using verbal description for people who are blind or have low vision.&nbsp; Heart Mountain <img width="1280" height="720" width_o="1280" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ac84bb75dd4c482076106468e632e540b8780524ea2e852100e6bdde8939e8e8/Jeffereis_Maya_05.jpg" data-mid="174043137" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ac84bb75dd4c482076106468e632e540b8780524ea2e852100e6bdde8939e8e8/Jeffereis_Maya_05.jpg" /> <img width="1280" height="720" width_o="1280" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c8a0b44a1c52eb2f1238aa590afe94ffc743469c265f3cb53dd7d3dd29043871/01_HeartMountain.jpg" data-mid="174043129" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c8a0b44a1c52eb2f1238aa590afe94ffc743469c265f3cb53dd7d3dd29043871/01_HeartMountain.jpg" /> The artist and her mother repurpose a traditional Japanese Bon Odori Festival dance as an act of remembrance at the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center in Wyoming--a&nbsp; Japanese American incarceration camp where the artist’s maternal grandmother was detained from 1942-45. From Every Pine Tree <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/39d93dafee2c3674cab78671175df80413ee6d537e774c33de381dd67e188774/Jeffereis_Maya_06.jpg" data-mid="174043783" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/39d93dafee2c3674cab78671175df80413ee6d537e774c33de381dd67e188774/Jeffereis_Maya_06.jpg" /> The artist, along with her mother, stages an intervention on the Wyoming landscape where her maternal grandmother was incarcerated during World War II. Temixco <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ef9e19e07642dbe06afbd30e0bc4aac110c55b98f049ec56f276b9cc8384d608/Jeffereis_Maya_04.jpg" data-mid="174044607" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ef9e19e07642dbe06afbd30e0bc4aac110c55b98f049ec56f276b9cc8384d608/Jeffereis_Maya_04.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8417cc865680b088b1122a7e358590bacf832bbd741180f27020ad562805854b/02-Temixco.jpg" data-mid="174044609" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8417cc865680b088b1122a7e358590bacf832bbd741180f27020ad562805854b/02-Temixco.jpg" /> Temixco repurposes a Japanese Bon Odori dance, traditionally performed during ceremonies to honor ancestors, at water theme park built over the site of a World War II Japanese Mexican incarceration camp. Fallout Shelter <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b0af32b2fd31ca741e2314be1033a1310bc02aa511490efb07c7e11d1a9f9941/01_FalloutShelter.jpg" data-mid="173992908" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b0af32b2fd31ca741e2314be1033a1310bc02aa511490efb07c7e11d1a9f9941/01_FalloutShelter.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/df5110c80adc88d6441a48d953dbd4567916d3d946903fab7bc9850fcf54e0b1/02_FalloutShelter.jpg" data-mid="173992910" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/df5110c80adc88d6441a48d953dbd4567916d3d946903fab7bc9850fcf54e0b1/02_FalloutShelter.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e6a040cbc4fe2b2a1633ed13a3f364a952da05c18f2a0fe603b553142cde2bbb/03_FalloutShelter.jpg" data-mid="173992913" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e6a040cbc4fe2b2a1633ed13a3f364a952da05c18f2a0fe603b553142cde2bbb/03_FalloutShelter.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/70d59d40457eccf8aac2c3462f9e602c2d5822b21477f733c9b5a4ee882b9a88/04_FalloutShelter.jpg" data-mid="173992915" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/70d59d40457eccf8aac2c3462f9e602c2d5822b21477f733c9b5a4ee882b9a88/04_FalloutShelter.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/07b0ca7cd938413db96273908bd4892ef2d3814b1a17a0964c19208c4b08bfdd/05_FalloutShelter.jpg" data-mid="173992917" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/07b0ca7cd938413db96273908bd4892ef2d3814b1a17a0964c19208c4b08bfdd/05_FalloutShelter.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6870b9177342ef7a17b804b7f0033d2e19f07cc4f6c84c00107da55f6e14d4ee/06_FalloutShelter.jpg" data-mid="173992919" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6870b9177342ef7a17b804b7f0033d2e19f07cc4f6c84c00107da55f6e14d4ee/06_FalloutShelter.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a1aed12f2c4ef85e1fee67a896220f3d4298ad65cdc9ac268cbb4efbac65c09e/07_FalloutShelter.jpg" data-mid="173992928" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a1aed12f2c4ef85e1fee67a896220f3d4298ad65cdc9ac268cbb4efbac65c09e/07_FalloutShelter.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e2fc1ef57ecc968f454eadcad2d42dc84587972798882fe14daa69e770b76246/08_FalloutShelter.jpg" data-mid="173992930" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e2fc1ef57ecc968f454eadcad2d42dc84587972798882fe14daa69e770b76246/08_FalloutShelter.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/211f0a5fb0dd1a8a8106c18f4a8faeb20fff3e792ff01b99037337ba8ff27521/09_FalloutShelter.jpg" data-mid="173992931" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/211f0a5fb0dd1a8a8106c18f4a8faeb20fff3e792ff01b99037337ba8ff27521/09_FalloutShelter.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9df82b8b684b1445e6c48d24f15cc043f3f53c510222ad48639314090bceecba/10_FalloutShelter.jpg" data-mid="173992935" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9df82b8b684b1445e6c48d24f15cc043f3f53c510222ad48639314090bceecba/10_FalloutShelter.jpg" /> Fallout Shelter is a thought experiment about ethics, identity , and world-building that stages a US naval training exercise&nbsp; outlining a post-apocalyptic survival scenario in which ten people occupy a fallout shelter. https://mayajeffereis.com/Mobile-nav Sun, 02 Apr 2023 00:56:24 +0000 Maya Jeffereis https://mayajeffereis.com/Mobile-nav WorkSilhouettes RemainThe Moment before a Dream Seeing Water Lilies Heart Mountain From Every Pine Tree Temixco Fallout Shelter About Bio &amp; Artist Statement CV ConnectNewsletter Email Instagram ©Maya Jeffereis 2024 https://mayajeffereis.com/Land-of-Eternal-Summer Fri, 31 Oct 2025 02:18:05 +0000 Maya Jeffereis https://mayajeffereis.com/Land-of-Eternal-Summer Land of Eternal Summer 2025 Single-channel video installation (color, sound) 14 minutes <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d49f384c00f2b86a9025ea67bd0f4c6cc9846eb3b3df08965040cc4d8ceeb2ab/02_PressRelease-copy.jpg" data-mid="240097405" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d49f384c00f2b86a9025ea67bd0f4c6cc9846eb3b3df08965040cc4d8ceeb2ab/02_PressRelease-copy.jpg" /> <img width="8598" height="5732" width_o="8598" height_o="5732" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/54cf8e53d6c04d6e892796dc0958f9dd0d61b69e0c7405ee3dfc70554ff3a424/icsp_017_2-copy.jpg" data-mid="244534813" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/54cf8e53d6c04d6e892796dc0958f9dd0d61b69e0c7405ee3dfc70554ff3a424/icsp_017_2-copy.jpg" /> <img width="8604" height="5736" width_o="8604" height_o="5736" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/565ce65f1553542b44b3fdb9e1ceb87942186fe25f99f6ca6c799a6dded0fc28/icsp_017_1-copy.jpg" data-mid="244534814" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/565ce65f1553542b44b3fdb9e1ceb87942186fe25f99f6ca6c799a6dded0fc28/icsp_017_1-copy.jpg" /> <img width="8666" height="5777" width_o="8666" height_o="5777" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2ffad1d52c39d449ae42e5791f3fc2ceb83520909c55955ad2f1a0d573073fe3/icsp_017_5-copy.jpg" data-mid="244534815" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2ffad1d52c39d449ae42e5791f3fc2ceb83520909c55955ad2f1a0d573073fe3/icsp_017_5-copy.jpg" /> <img width="8545" height="5697" width_o="8545" height_o="5697" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/53b435598be733a1e7614af270753b5fa4a55a5ecb5f924b80d1d0aef0cdd848/icsp_017_3-copy.jpg" data-mid="244534816" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/53b435598be733a1e7614af270753b5fa4a55a5ecb5f924b80d1d0aef0cdd848/icsp_017_3-copy.jpg" /> <img width="8621" height="5747" width_o="8621" height_o="5747" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4e88615be64330f3aacbc0b7918ba9fca245af575d2f926ca8a32bd79ec784b7/icsp_017_4-copy.jpg" data-mid="244534817" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4e88615be64330f3aacbc0b7918ba9fca245af575d2f926ca8a32bd79ec784b7/icsp_017_4-copy.jpg" /> Land of Eternal Summer focuses on&nbsp;the wave of Japanese laborers that immigrated to Brazil to work on coffee plantations, a movement that began in 1908, in the wake of slavery’s abolition and shifting global immigration policies. Resisting conventional methods of presenting historical footage on this subject, Jeffereis transfers archival Japanese Brazilian images to 16mm film using a phytogram process—a cameraless technique in which plants develop the photograph or moving image. Plants from both Brazil and Japan, including açaí, coffee, hibiscus and chamomile flowers, kariyasu (Japanese silver grass) and kihada (Amur cork tree bark), give visual form to the hazy images on screen, interrupting the documentary gaze.&nbsp; Throughout the video, fragmented images of passenger ships, families, and migrants in fields flicker alongside translated excerpts of tanka poems written by Japanese laborers in Brazil and voiced by their descendants. Beneath these expressions of longing and resilience is an inquiry into the complex dynamics of national identity during Brazil’s Estado Novo dictatorship in the 1930s and ’40s, when Japanese Brazilians endured oppression and cultural erasure while still maintaining ties to imperial Japan. Jeffereis emphasizes the land—not only as a site of occupation, extraction, and destruction, but also as a place for reimagining belonging. Across her practice, Jeffereis asks what it means to reclaim the archive and envision new ways of seeing rooted in the environment, solidarity, and forms of community beyond the nation-state. https://mayajeffereis.com/Passages-II Tue, 30 Jan 2024 15:05:26 +0000 Maya Jeffereis https://mayajeffereis.com/Passages-II Passages II 2024 Single-channel video installation (color, sound); cast sugar cane sculptures 11:30 minutes <img width="1500" height="1125" width_o="1500" height_o="1125" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/137e631c48c41284cc49999ef8eb3b870b5f602240967a7e4d57368f8aef9706/03_While-my-tears-flow-as-I-water-the-canefield_2024.jpg" data-mid="245331194" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/137e631c48c41284cc49999ef8eb3b870b5f602240967a7e4d57368f8aef9706/03_While-my-tears-flow-as-I-water-the-canefield_2024.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="1000" width_o="1500" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5267e67c269649854e7b2aa9af2a57fd91270ffb0a2f305b47cf69d50e3680fd/01_PassagesII_2024.jpg" data-mid="245331210" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5267e67c269649854e7b2aa9af2a57fd91270ffb0a2f305b47cf69d50e3680fd/01_PassagesII_2024.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="1023" width_o="1500" height_o="1023" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cfbb88650d96b463b31af441883f5af4380485101b4b6e4528c7c3ea5751092e/02_PassagesII_2024.jpg" data-mid="245331196" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cfbb88650d96b463b31af441883f5af4380485101b4b6e4528c7c3ea5751092e/02_PassagesII_2024.jpg" /> <img width="3840" height="2160" width_o="3840" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0a99d433a424486860a89bde2555aad9a68612668d76447da024db6e304ea6e7/Final-Cut_Passages-II_1-24-2024.00_03_00_09.Still055.jpg" data-mid="203199598" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0a99d433a424486860a89bde2555aad9a68612668d76447da024db6e304ea6e7/Final-Cut_Passages-II_1-24-2024.00_03_00_09.Still055.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2437ee5e1c9c6fbf3a2910a544ece38423ef34dcb6a03acffa0011027a0c243d/03_MayaJeffereis.jpg" data-mid="203199649" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2437ee5e1c9c6fbf3a2910a544ece38423ef34dcb6a03acffa0011027a0c243d/03_MayaJeffereis.jpg" /> <img width="3840" height="2160" width_o="3840" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c0c86ceaaabfe3c7cbf510bd4d339c9c5938cd36766d488988cf6ed04514bfad/Final-Cut_Passages-II_1-24-2024.00_10_02_03.Still056.jpg" data-mid="203199685" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c0c86ceaaabfe3c7cbf510bd4d339c9c5938cd36766d488988cf6ed04514bfad/Final-Cut_Passages-II_1-24-2024.00_10_02_03.Still056.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9fddda857d41c229b418322bd1d3ca2a77840edc4f30c3b2d5d609dadd4d9063/01_MayaJeffereis.jpg" data-mid="203199647" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9fddda857d41c229b418322bd1d3ca2a77840edc4f30c3b2d5d609dadd4d9063/01_MayaJeffereis.jpg" /> <img width="3840" height="2160" width_o="3840" height_o="2160" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1c7f512e6173fcf81437930ff9f281a18dffb832d31493487d55b2dccd77d4e1/Final-Cut_Passages-II_1-24-2024.00_10_08_21.Still057.jpg" data-mid="203199600" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1c7f512e6173fcf81437930ff9f281a18dffb832d31493487d55b2dccd77d4e1/Final-Cut_Passages-II_1-24-2024.00_10_08_21.Still057.jpg" /> Passages II considers oceanic thinking as means to connect related histories of exploitation and resistance between islands in the Pacific and Caribbean. The video combines digital and archival footage, cyanotypes on 16mm, and excerpts of Japanese, Caribbean, and Pacific poetry and prose along with an installation of cast sugar cane stalks. The video is loosely inspired by my maternal great-grandparents’ history as Japanese immigrant laborers on Hawaiʻian sugar cane plantations in the early 20th century. Indentured Asian replacement labor fueled the plantation system following the abolition of African enslavement in the Americas. Not only economically profitable, these islands served as strategic military sites for growing western expansion. In 1898, the US annexed Hawaiʻi after the sovereign nation was overthrown by a militia; the same year, Spain relinquished claims on Cuba and ceded sovereignty over Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to the US, a result of the Spanish American War, extending United States imperialism across the Pacific and Caribbean. These islands share a history of economic and military exploitation by Western powers but also a rich legacy of resistance and solidarity with one another. Rather than “islands in a far sea”, Tongan and Fijian writer Epeli Hauʻofa considers Oceania “a sea of islands” united by a vast ocean, the site of ancestral history, resilience, and futurity. https://mayajeffereis.com/Fields-Fallen-from-Distant-Songs Sat, 08 Jul 2023 18:50:17 +0000 Maya Jeffereis https://mayajeffereis.com/Fields-Fallen-from-Distant-Songs Fields Fallen from Distant Songs <img width="1500" height="1026" width_o="1500" height_o="1026" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7c93af06ad747ac66c44b403c2130c06ecf54aca35d54fd557b114d293f972f7/05_Fields-Fallen-from-Distant-Songs_2023.jpg" data-mid="245331212" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7c93af06ad747ac66c44b403c2130c06ecf54aca35d54fd557b114d293f972f7/05_Fields-Fallen-from-Distant-Songs_2023.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="1000" width_o="1500" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b332149b47b90ad6eb69942290b886aff298015ccbebe2259acc30dcd8c8da65/07_Fields-Fallen-from-Distant-Songs.JPG" data-mid="245331214" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b332149b47b90ad6eb69942290b886aff298015ccbebe2259acc30dcd8c8da65/07_Fields-Fallen-from-Distant-Songs.JPG" /> <img width="1500" height="844" width_o="1500" height_o="844" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0a94c8ae96cff22890792324dfd15d452963102fa86d8e29eafc7ad77acaf478/06_Fields-Fallen-from-Distant-Songs.jpg" data-mid="245331213" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0a94c8ae96cff22890792324dfd15d452963102fa86d8e29eafc7ad77acaf478/06_Fields-Fallen-from-Distant-Songs.jpg" /> Fields Fallen from Distant Songs 2023 Two-channel video installation, 11 minutes Installation view: The World Is Before You at EFA Project Space, July 6--August 12, 2023 Fields Fallen from Distant Songs is an experimental film loosely inspired Jeffereis' great-grandparents' history as Japanese immigrant laborers on Hawaiian sugarcane plantations. The film contends with contemporary questions of sovereignty, solidarity, and hauntings of the past as they persist in the present. A cross-temporal narrative unfolds as ghostly images flicker across the screen: found footage of workers on the plantations intersperse with Japanese folk songs, poetry, 16mm home movies shot by her grandfather in the 1960s, and the artist’s own footage of the eruption of Kīlauea in January 2023. The material, economic, and cultural connotations of sugar are inextricable from histories of migration and displacement, but Jeffereis attempts to reframe this narrative by exploring notions of rematriation, of returning ancestral land. https://mayajeffereis.com/Passages-I Sat, 08 Jul 2023 18:53:53 +0000 Maya Jeffereis https://mayajeffereis.com/Passages-I Passages I <img width="1000" height="667" width_o="1000" height_o="667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f47f543fc90f6221141cf8b123467432a103b6381e939e522e7ebbfd8f35c763/Jeffereis_Maya_02.jpg" data-mid="245331217" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f47f543fc90f6221141cf8b123467432a103b6381e939e522e7ebbfd8f35c763/Jeffereis_Maya_02.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="563" width_o="1000" height_o="563" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c73a43d85185ac092bf0aa6f0e3411bb712147825917f762edaf76977fdd14d4/Jeffereis_Maya_03.jpg" data-mid="245331216" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c73a43d85185ac092bf0aa6f0e3411bb712147825917f762edaf76977fdd14d4/Jeffereis_Maya_03.jpg" /> <img width="3840" height="2880" width_o="3840" height_o="2880" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/62d3b812c3eee9899b11202017a3c472720956be18546149f6db5a0dc08fd16b/Passages-I.00_01_28_14.Still062.jpg" data-mid="184516342" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/62d3b812c3eee9899b11202017a3c472720956be18546149f6db5a0dc08fd16b/Passages-I.00_01_28_14.Still062.jpg" /> <img width="3840" height="2880" width_o="3840" height_o="2880" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e0f66a954d10f6c44c31cfefa512f7b676d0c7aab464bca64900bd7cea70b2a3/Passages-I.00_00_19_02.Still061.jpg" data-mid="184516341" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e0f66a954d10f6c44c31cfefa512f7b676d0c7aab464bca64900bd7cea70b2a3/Passages-I.00_00_19_02.Still061.jpg" /> Passages I 2023 Single-channel video installation (color, silent), 5 minutes; sugar glass screen, 32 x 24 inches Installation view: The World Is Before You at EFA Project Space, July 6--August 12, 2023 Passages I (2023), is a single channel video installation created with&nbsp;archival documents and direct animation on film&nbsp;and projected onto a sugar glass screen. This experimental video, created through the artist’s intervention with a chemigram process, sets the tone by providing an unusual metaphoric space. The notion of labor comes to life as it bears the physical memory of migration, adaptation, and struggle. https://mayajeffereis.com/Silhouettes-Remain Wed, 13 Jul 2022 16:50:05 +0000 Maya Jeffereis https://mayajeffereis.com/Silhouettes-Remain Silhouettes Remain <img width="1000" height="750" width_o="1000" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a267c256ca8a5a1e7ce4ca0eb13e6a631de4b35174a4d4311f692a757ecfe6cb/maya5.jpg" data-mid="173937756" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a267c256ca8a5a1e7ce4ca0eb13e6a631de4b35174a4d4311f692a757ecfe6cb/maya5.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="750" width_o="1000" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/44897c6fc2e1885dc975d462d03057dfca44a3d5691af343cce7c9736963b730/maya1.jpg" data-mid="173937757" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/44897c6fc2e1885dc975d462d03057dfca44a3d5691af343cce7c9736963b730/maya1.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="750" width_o="1000" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/da7a4de1c11a8be63a4672ab876493a4d21b66d8241e62cda0765808474599d2/maya10.jpg" data-mid="173937758" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/da7a4de1c11a8be63a4672ab876493a4d21b66d8241e62cda0765808474599d2/maya10.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="750" width_o="1000" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/27063bb12947c86b47bba7c4554f13e40dc811334c630c50aeadcb6aebd3512d/maya11.jpg" data-mid="173937759" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/27063bb12947c86b47bba7c4554f13e40dc811334c630c50aeadcb6aebd3512d/maya11.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="750" width_o="1000" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/12bd22ba19cfa7ed04240ef8ce409ce4e4411433a467a13f4b865212a5dc26eb/maya12.jpg" data-mid="173937760" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/12bd22ba19cfa7ed04240ef8ce409ce4e4411433a467a13f4b865212a5dc26eb/maya12.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="750" width_o="1000" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cd078582947404ff5f8cd2d8eb53d766e31214bef0d7f48e1e409ebecdb16b0f/maya13.jpg" data-mid="173937761" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cd078582947404ff5f8cd2d8eb53d766e31214bef0d7f48e1e409ebecdb16b0f/maya13.jpg" /> Silhouettes Remain 2022 Single-channel video installation, 10 minutesInstallation view: Only Silhouettes Remain at A.I.R. Gallery May 28--June 26, 2022 Drawing on an assembled collection of images of European Orientalist paintings depicting women, Jeffereis’ video employs digital editing techniques as both a critical examination of colonial fantasies and a speculation on liberatory possibilities. Silhouettes Remain comes out of Jeffereis’ research into misrepresentations of women throughout art history, including the European construct of “the Orient” and its fantasies of the “exotic.” Contrasting the Japonisme movement of the late 1800s—in which European women styled themselves after Japanese women in an effort to appear exotic—against the Orientalist trope of the odalisque, Jeffereis questions both the invisibility and hypervisibility of Asian women. Her video excavates the origins of misportrayals and stereotypes that continue to this day. As contemporary viewers, how might we look at these paintings in ways that do not reinscribe and reify the same colonial power dynamics? In Silhouettes Remain, the frame becomes a portal through which the subject of a painting may disappear from sight, offering the viewer a new way of looking and the subject a reprieve from unseeing eyes. Reframing long-standing narratives, the video speculates on new, imagined futures for the women of these paintings. https://mayajeffereis.com/The-Moment-before-a-Dream Sun, 02 Apr 2023 00:56:24 +0000 Maya Jeffereis https://mayajeffereis.com/The-Moment-before-a-Dream The Moment before a Dream <img width="1500" height="844" width_o="1500" height_o="844" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1351e8a2e22cf0743c5f1052b082a138f84f883ba9efb6029946212e445f1814/01_The-Moment-Before-a-Dream_2022.jpg" data-mid="173942753" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1351e8a2e22cf0743c5f1052b082a138f84f883ba9efb6029946212e445f1814/01_The-Moment-Before-a-Dream_2022.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="844" width_o="1500" height_o="844" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2032dd948d621d8718c09f601645ec7fced6c7488ec33fd7b23d43a6a1ca0593/02_The-Moment-Before-a-Dream_2022.jpg" data-mid="173942754" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2032dd948d621d8718c09f601645ec7fced6c7488ec33fd7b23d43a6a1ca0593/02_The-Moment-Before-a-Dream_2022.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="844" width_o="1500" height_o="844" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f22c488c5e530e954732fa2241a37f51f6ce67445e20acd0a294084c1d68a5a1/03_The-Moment-Before-a-Dream_2022.jpg" data-mid="173942769" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f22c488c5e530e954732fa2241a37f51f6ce67445e20acd0a294084c1d68a5a1/03_The-Moment-Before-a-Dream_2022.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="563" width_o="1000" height_o="563" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2c2b2ec6fd7df2f153bcfe4755219de4f1a578bd4e262e80556f3b1ee93efb07/Jeffereis_Maya_03.jpg" data-mid="173942771" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2c2b2ec6fd7df2f153bcfe4755219de4f1a578bd4e262e80556f3b1ee93efb07/Jeffereis_Maya_03.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="563" width_o="1000" height_o="563" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f6d040d3e91f7a1bc08b0077ef6978f932336ffd17237848476b46b645a09e7/Jeffereis_Maya_05.jpg" data-mid="173942772" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9f6d040d3e91f7a1bc08b0077ef6978f932336ffd17237848476b46b645a09e7/Jeffereis_Maya_05.jpg" /> <img width="3600" height="2400" width_o="3600" height_o="2400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/14535b4add8c33f31752900f31318cabc272be63bef46f37a627957d8037e7e0/kolinmendezphoto-bkm-art-history-happy-hour-2022.11.17-from-monet-to-morisot-079-8868.jpg" data-mid="173942773" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/14535b4add8c33f31752900f31318cabc272be63bef46f37a627957d8037e7e0/kolinmendezphoto-bkm-art-history-happy-hour-2022.11.17-from-monet-to-morisot-079-8868.jpg" /> <img width="3600" height="2400" width_o="3600" height_o="2400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/15d6fa893c6499997f83c16ce29e37ee6bdd8538a762033b771ff42d95597983/kolinmendezphoto-bkm-art-history-happy-hour-2022.11.17-from-monet-to-morisot-080-8872.jpg" data-mid="173942774" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/15d6fa893c6499997f83c16ce29e37ee6bdd8538a762033b771ff42d95597983/kolinmendezphoto-bkm-art-history-happy-hour-2022.11.17-from-monet-to-morisot-080-8872.jpg" /> The Moment before a Dream2022 Single-channel video and performance lecture, HD video (color, sound), 15 minutes Performed at&nbsp;Brooklyn Museum in November 2022 in conjunction with the exhibition Monet to Morisot: The Real and Imagined in European Art. The Moment before a Dream is a film and performance lecture that rewrites archival spaces of darkness as sites of emancipation, refuge, and reinvention for the women put on display in ethnographic exhibitions at colonial world fairs. https://mayajeffereis.com/Seeing-Water-Lilies Tue, 21 Jul 2020 18:39:28 +0000 Maya Jeffereis https://mayajeffereis.com/Seeing-Water-Lilies Seeing Water Lilies <img width="1500" height="844" width_o="1500" height_o="844" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eee25d3dc3884e69bdc93745418abae423ac29e0fe46e4176468195a850d3672/09_Seeing-Water-Lilies_2019.jpg" data-mid="173992668" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eee25d3dc3884e69bdc93745418abae423ac29e0fe46e4176468195a850d3672/09_Seeing-Water-Lilies_2019.jpg" /> <img width="1000" height="563" width_o="1000" height_o="563" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eaa791acdc36083323b62e79fe917373389016e2f0572a35962d4aa95de62e66/Jeffereis_Maya_06.jpg" data-mid="173992364" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eaa791acdc36083323b62e79fe917373389016e2f0572a35962d4aa95de62e66/Jeffereis_Maya_06.jpg" /> &nbsp; Seeing Water Lilies 2019 Three-channel video installation (color, sound), 6:18 minutes Seeing Water Lilies is a three-channel video that reflects on what it means to see art in the absence of sight. The video is an exchange between Karen, who is legally blind, and the artist. The two met in 2013 at the Guggenheim Museum where Maya leads verbal description tours for people who are blind or have low vision. Here, Karen describes a work of art from memory, while the artist “recreates” that work based on her description. The video features verbal description, which uses evocative language to convey the visual world to people who are blind, in an attempt to understand how language succeeds and fails in communicating our sensory experiences of the world. https://mayajeffereis.com/Heart-Mountain Fri, 06 Oct 2017 21:27:24 +0000 Maya Jeffereis https://mayajeffereis.com/Heart-Mountain Heart Mountain <img width="1280" height="720" width_o="1280" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1a8f8383fe14f3a3f0b188272906e2d664c4d0693cfec3b74383e199f8ed6958/Jeffereis_Maya_05.jpg" data-mid="174043275" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1a8f8383fe14f3a3f0b188272906e2d664c4d0693cfec3b74383e199f8ed6958/Jeffereis_Maya_05.jpg" /> Heart Mountain 2017 Three-channel video installation, 3:21 minutes The artist and her mother repurpose a traditional Japanese Bon Odori Festival dance as an act of remembrance at the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center in Wyoming--a&nbsp; Japanese American incarceration camp where the artist’s maternal grandmother was detained from 1942-1945. Like the 120,000 people of Japanese descent living on the West Coast, Jeffereis’ grandmother, Wakako “Mary” Nishimoto, was forcibly removed from her home in eastern Washington and sent to an incarceration camp by order of the U.S. Government without due process of law under Executive Order 9066. As part of the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist tradition in which Jeffereis was raised, Bon Odori dancing is performed by the community to honor the spirits of one’s ancestors. In the video, the artist and her mother dance to the folk song "Tankō Bushi" (“Coal Miner's Song”), with gestures that are adapted from the labor of mining. The performance of labor relates to the forced labor within the camps, as well as the perceived economic threat the Japanese American farming community posed to white farmers, a contributing factor that led to incarceration. While the dance is at once a tribute to the memory of those imprisoned, it also serves to bring visibility to an overlooked history. Heart Mountain is one of a series of videos that reconsiders how to represent and memorialize the historical narrative of Japanese incarceration in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.&nbsp;