Stephanie Syjuco is interested in seeing the mundane and commonplace take on new meaning by using familiar materials in unconventional ways. Her work explores the intersection of culture, nature, and technology. She uses high and low materials to create objects that, at first glance, appear to mimic and blur the boundaries between fact and fiction.
"Black Market" is an installation consisting of photography, video and sculpture exploring aspects of place, specifically the artist’s place of birth, The Philippines. In a photographic series downloaded images of marketplaces have been digitally altered by blacking out the commodities (mainly produce, foodstuffs and other commonly traded items in local markets). "Body Double," is a 120 minute video loop of the movie Platoon (largely shot in The Philippines) altered to depict a moving sequence of tropical landscape seen through cropped squares and rectangles. With all human presence removed from the film, flora and fauna stand in as a double for Syjuco’s place of birth offering a "reworked" home movie. Lastly, the artist has bound together and covered commercial items in a black papier- maché skin. These black sculptures are displayed on recycled IKEA melamine furniture. The objects become strange new products that have entered into an alternative form of production and consumption.

Black Market Series: Appropriated and altered photographs