Mail Order Brides (Artist Collaborative)

Founded in San Francisco in 1995 by Eliza Barrios, Reanne Estrada, and Jenifer Wofford, Mail Order Brides/M.O.B. is the oldest Filipina American art collaborative in the Bay Area. Through humor and camp the group boldly explores gender, race, and cultural stereotypes of Filipinas. The name is a play on the controversial practice of arranged marriages through international introduction agencies. In addition to their karaoke videos and performances, M.O.B. is well known for installations, public service posters, and workshops.^[1]

Mail Order Brides/M.O.B.’s work has been exhibited at the M.H. de Young Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Triton Museum of Art, the Chinatown Cultural Center in San Francisco, Kearny Street Workshop, the Luggage Store, and with the San Francisco Art Commission. Their film/video works have screened at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, the International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the Mix Festival and the International Film Festival in Detroit.^[2]

Mail Order Brides/M.O.B., “United We Sit,” (2003)

Projects

Market Street Art In Transit, 1998

Mail Order Brides/M.O.B. created a series of posters for the San Francisco Art Commission’s Market Street Art In Transit project that were displayed along Market Street.

Museum Pieces: Bay Area Artists Consider the de Young, 1999

Prior to the 2nd demolition and new construction of the M.H. de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, guest curator Glen Helfand selected 18 site-specific works to be commissioned and included in the exhibition Museum Pieces that opened in 1999. As part of the exhibition the Mail Order Brides/M.O.B. surveyed visitors to learn how to make the museum space more inviting. Based on the responses they collected, the artists created an installation that incorporated decorating solutions for the museum.

Mail Order Bride of Frankenstein, 2002

As part of their residency at the McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte, North Carolina the collaborative team filmed the karaoke horror film “Mail Order Bride of Frankenstein” as part of their “Karaoke Trilogy” that included “What Now My Love” and “Holiday.” The work screened at the 23rd Annual SF International LGBT Film Festival; SF International Asian American Film Festival, Mix Festival (NY)

Always A BridesMaid, 2005

An installation and series of motivational videos created for Yerba Buena Center for The Arts' signature Bay Area Now 4 exhibition.

Notes

1. ^ de Jesús, Melinda L. Peminist Critical Theory Theorizing the Filipina/American Experience. Routledge Press, 2005, pp. 291 - 307.
2. ^ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Bay Area Now 4: Mail Order Brides/M.O.B.. YBCA, 2005, pp. 44-45.

References

• PINAY POWER : Peminist Critical Theory Theorizing the Filipina/American Experience; Edited by Melinda L. de Jesús, published by Routledge, 2005.

• "Having Your Art and Eating It Too", Filipinas Magazine, Renee Macalino Rutledge, November 2005
• “Forever on the Move,” Amy Berk, World Sculpture News, Winter 2000, p 30-35
• “Genial Deconstruction of the de Young Museum,” David Bonetti, S.F. Examiner, Nov. 26, 1999
• “Local Heroes,” Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 20, 1999
• The Metropolitan “Mail Order Brides engage SF with their unusual brand of campy, goofy fun,” by Christine Brenneman, October 19 – November 1, 1998

External links

• [1]
• http://www.e-b-x.com/collaborations/Pages/m.o.b..html
• http://www.losingyourself.com/mail-order-bridesmob/
• http://vimeo.com/user4221531

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