Wintergreen oil transfer print, mulberry ink, mushroom ink and graphite on paper

I used wintergreen oil to create two photo-transfers of family photographs (the photograph of my grandmother was in a museum in Cuyo, Palawan, Philippines where she was an English teacher and where, a year later, my grandparents were married. My cousin’s daughter took a photo of the photo while visiting Cuyo). As a base layer, beneath the photographs, I copied information on anti-miscegenation laws that were passed almost as soon as European immigrants arrived in North America. The top photograph, of my grandmother, shows her as a ghost-like figure and symbolizes the erasure of our Filipino heritage. Her marriage to my grandfather was not legal in most states in the U.S.; they married in the Philippines a year after this photo was taken. At bottom is a photograph of my parents and grandparents, taken in 1954, thirteen years before my parents' marriage was legal in Virginia, where I was raised…or North Carolina, where my mother was raised…or Maryland, where I live.