Frieze LA 2020

Inspired by the images of the photographer Dorothea Lange, Making camouflage nets for the War Department (1942), Tania Candiani recreated the forced labor of Japanese Americans imprisoned in the concentration camps in Manzanar and the Santa Anita Assembly Center in California, during the Second World War.

Overseen by army engineers, groups of women wove huge camouflage nets made of hemp, designed to be worn over tanks and other war machines. Recreating the giant loom-shaped structures and working with artists to recreate the camouflage over the course of the Frieze art fair, Candiani seeks to make visible the forced labor that was taking place during this time in American history; establishing a connection with the situation of migrants currently in detention camps along the US-Mexico border.