American Peril:
Imagining the Foreign Threat
American Peril is a multi-faceted visual arts exhibition curated from the private collection of Rob and his wife Cathy Matos who began collecting anti-Asian racial propaganda as classroom teaching resources in 2017.
In 2018, Rob partnered with Twelves Gates Arts to present a collection of more than 60 original printed materials and other artifacts that span nearly 150 years, from the Chinese Exclusion Era and World War II anti-Japanese Propaganda to post-9/11 Islamophobia. The inaugural exhibition connected four distinct periods of rampant anti-Asian racism: The mid-Nineteenth century Chinese Exclusion Era, Japanese Internment in World War II, the Auto Industry’s Japan Bashing in the 1970’s - 1980’s, and Post 9/11 Islamophobia, constructing a timeline of Anti-Asian Racism through magazine ads, posters, and miscellaneous Americana paraphernalia that directly juxtaposed the contemporary anti-Asian and anti-Muslim sanctions. Since then the exhibit has been remounted in several different formats in 2020, 2021, and 2023.
View the 2021 Online exhibit on Twelve Gates Arts’ website below:
https://www.twelvegatesarts.org/american-peril
In February 2020 a second phase of the American Peril exhibit titled “Faces of the Enemy” was mounted at Philadelphia City Hall, as part of the Art in City Hall program. has been expanded to include a series of portrait photographs produced by Sunny Huang and shot by Philadelphia-based photographer Justin Chiu. Chiu’s series juxtaposes individuals who have been targets of racial propaganda with exhibit artifacts to highlight the impact of propaganda on members of the Philadelphia community.
View Justin’s portrait series on his website below:
https://jlchiu.com/americanperil
With the rise of COVID-related anti-Asian violence, in Spring 2021 Twelve Gates Arts decided to remount a virtual exhibition with select works from the original American Peril exhibit.
In 2022 a subset of the collection focusing specifically on WWII anti-Japanese propaganda and the US-Japan Trade War was loaned to the Spurlock Museum at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where it was shown as part of the Nikkeijin Illinois exhibition curated by Jason Finkelman. Justin Chiu’s portrait series was also displayed at the museum spanning the exhibit run of February to December 2023.
In 2018 and 2021, works displayed in the American Peril exhibit came from both the Collections of Rob Buscher and Cathy Matos, and Jamal J. Elias. 2020 and 2022 exhibits featured items solely from the Collection of Rob Buscher and Cathy Matos.
For loan inquiries or if you are interested in hosting the American Peril exhibit at your institution, please contact Rob.