Figure P.I.

In Figure P.I.,(2025), Audrey Lukban explores how colonial hierarchies have shaped our understanding of history. In this oil on wood painting and accompanying label, Lukban reconstructs an archival image found in the collection of the University of Michigan. In the foreground sit several Filipino students at their desks, each one dressed in traditional attire. In the background, the standing figure of their American teacher looms above them. Lukban has rendered the image in a sepia tone, giving it a faded quality in keeping with the source material. But she also calls attention to the charged description found alongside the image. By offering other options on the label, she illustrates how the narrative of this image is reframed by a change in perspective.