E.O. 9066
This work draws on an image by Toyo Miyatake, a Los Angeles-based portrait photographer who was incarcerated at Manzanar during World War II under Executive Order 9066. Although cameras were prohibited in the camps, Miyatake secretly constructed one from smuggled parts, disguising it as a lunchbox. With it, he produced a rare and powerful body of photographs documenting daily life within the camp from the perspective of those detained.
The guard tower pictured in this piece is based on one of Miyatake’s photographs, an image that has come to symbolize both surveillance and confinement.
In contrast, the right side of the work presents a grouping of wooden rice bowls, painted black and enclosed behind glass. While traditional in form, they reference a loss rather than continuity. Meals in the camps were served in mess halls, often on tin plates, consisting largely of government-issued commodities and surplus foods. The absence of customary meals and shared family dining marked a profound disruption of cultural identity and daily life.
Together, these elements reflect both the external structures of control and the internal erosion of cultural practices, offering a meditation on displacement, resilience, and memory.