Total Transparency Filter (Portrait of N)
Artist
Stephanie Syjuco
(b. 1974)
Date2017
MediumArchival pigment inkjet
DimensionsSheet Dimension: 40 × 30 in. (101.6 × 76.2 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineJane and Victor Darnell Fund
Object number2021.10
DescriptionAP, Edition of 8Acquired as part of the 2020/20+Women@NBMAA initiative.
In this photograph, Stephanie Syjuco references the checkered pattern associated with Photoshop imaging software’s “transparency” tool, which renders part of images invisible.
Total Transparency Filter (Portrait of N) depicts a female figure who is shrouded under a semi-sheer checkered cloth that obscures her identifying features and yet presents her as an individual. An undocumented individual who received her college education through DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the subject's status in the United States is now potentially under threat. Under protective anonymity—analogized by the checkered cloth—the former student claims a presence where their individual identities must be absent, occupying a tenuous space between invisibility and visibility.
On View
Not on view
