Who Else But Americans Can... is a photographic response, tracing the span of the first transcontinental railroad, 1912 miles, using images pulled from Google maps, archives, public sources, and taken during our own site visits along the route. Beginning in California, we stop every two miles and take three photographs or screenshots (referencing the estimated 3 lives lost for every 2 miles of track laid) capturing images of the landscape in whatever form it may appear—ranging from dense urban centers to wide open spaces. When using online sources, we are confronted with the limits of virtual documentation of the physical world, particularly in sites that are not accessible or quite simply illegible. We consider these moments of abstraction important references to the redactions and erasures of history that we will confront through this performative process. Made of over 2500 photographs Who Else But Americans… is sequenced, printed, and joined together into a large scale sculptural installation that suggests the line of railroad and expands to around 700 feet in length.

Production of Who Else But Americans was supported by a Humanities Facilitating Fund grant from George Washington University and artist-in-residences from The Luminary and Montalvo Arts Center.

images 1-5: installation images at Mills College Art Museum, courtesy of Related Tactics

images 6-9: installation photos by Glen Cheriton, courtesy of ICA San Jose, 2024

Exhibition history:
Reshaping the Narrative: California Perspectives, Mills College Art Museum (2024)

P L A C E: Reckonings by Asian American Artists, ICA San Jose (2024)