EXODUS
Exodus is a fictional dystopian multi-narrative driven series that draws from my lived experiences coming from a refugee family. In the veils of The Vietnam War, a CIA conducted operation took place in Laos that relied on Hmong Soldiers to prevent communism from spreading. In the depths of Southeast Asia, this was known as The Secret War. Many people who took part in this war were lost as well as those who were escaping. In order to depart the attempts of genocide, everyone who left their homeland, family, and belongings were now displaced with a moving force. Altered by this, many Southeast Asian groups fled as refugees to different parts of the world; a land that became unfamiliar to most.
The scope of Exodus focuses on a future in which the ideas of displacement and environmental failures reoccurs through the wake of altering oxygen. This body of work is a cinematic journey through photographic images and text. It delves into the realities of departure, but how the experiences of immigration and displacement becomes a universal journey. Each narrative is a non-linear experience through different environments, settings, and plots with multiple characters. Within each anecdote, explores the realities of solving an alternating air crisis that at times confronts trauma and grief.
Exodus is a narrative created to think about a concerning and possible future; about my own family, but other families as well. It is a lineage and generational exploration of continued immigration. Special archival photographs are used to compare similar paralleled journeys from the past versus this prospective. Exodus engages in many themes to human life, children, adulthood, war, trauma, and that of the environment that we are hosted too.
Archival images are not possible without the help of The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries and to all their respected original photographers listed below.
Sorensen & Clarence Woodrow
Pendleton & Robert Larrimore
Forman & Harrison
Special thanks to Georgia Brown for reproduction digital rights, and Joseph Mougel for all accommodations in Exodus.
Since the unraveling events around the globe, some people have decided to come together to find alternative solutions. Built infrastructure were used as a research center; buildings that hosted thousands of plants that were in the study for a supply of oxygen.
About 40% of the entire human race were on the Exodus ships that are now in deep exploration. The other percentage makes up selected animals, plantations, fuel, and much more. Higher technology was a priority of those in The Exodus Vessels. Exploration was made easier in hoping to find a habitable place to live. Across planets and different oceans, soldiers and scientists became researchers and the front end of the mission. Their suits gave them better movement and sustainability against the hostile environment. Adaptive suits and technology were extremely well-given tools, which were made from many durable ships and shuttles during the Exodus launch.
