A Project Room Exhibition

Opening Reception: Friday, December 5 | 6–9PM

On view: December 5, 2025—March 7, 2026

__________________________________________________________________

In There is No Angel on Angel Island: Joanna Tam, the erased history of the Angel Island Immigration Station is examined and makes connections to current anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies in the United States. The photographs in the exhibition were taken using a pinhole camera that Tam made specifically for her Visibility Garment. She put her pinhole camera into the pocket of her garment, stood still, and exposed the photo paper. The haunting and surreal atmosphere in the pictures speaks to the nature of the immigration station, which is a site of segregation, discrimination, and dehumanization. This project is part of Tam’s larger body of work, Visibility Studies, which unpacks the meaning of hypervisibility, invisibility, and safety for folx whose identities do not align with societal norms.

Angel Island is the ancestral land of the Coast Miwok people. From 1910 to 1940, the immigration station on this island in the San Francisco Bay had processed immigrants from over eighty countries. While the processing time for Europeans was typically a couple of days, Asians had experienced a much longer period of detention. Chinese immigrants, in particular, were often detained for weeks and months. Angel Island had also served as a U.S. military installation. Nowadays, it is a popular destination for hiking and camping.

In partnership with California State Parks, the Angel Island Immigration Foundation manages and preserves the Angel Island Immigration Station. Tam encourages you to learn more about and to support the work of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation by visiting their website at www.aiisf.org.