ID Shop, 2014-2018
2016–2018
Legal advice | Randi Lee, Esq.
Revision | Alison Howard, Thomas Marks, Esq.
Logo design | Susie Han
Participants | Joseph/Jorie, Kiana, Sabrina (a.k.a.), John, Eugene, Carlos, Shaqasha, Christisha, Terry/Jade
Special thanks to Jonathan Gordon, LMSW, Monica Jihan Bose, Esq, Shevaun Wright, Esq, Sadia Shirazi.
2014–2015
Legal advice | Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento, Esq.
Legal research | Andrew Chan Kim, Esq.
Revision | Alison Howard, Thomas Marks, Esq.
Logo design | Susie Han
Participants | Jeff, Jetorey/Lauren, Joseph/Jorie
Special thanks to | Takako Oishi, Bianca Drew, LMSW, Miguel Angel De La Torre, Shevaun Wright, Esq.
ID Shop was a performative platform that connected queer, homeless, immigrant youth with art institutions to help them apply for state-issued ID cards. From 2014 to 2018, we provided proof-of-residency letters and other legal support to enable participants to navigate the identification process.
The project sought to formalize relationships through contracts, with three main goals:
First, it was structural: contracts helped define the roles between myself (the Artist), nonprofit organizations (the Organization), and youth participants (the Participants), creating a clear framework for collaboration.
Second, it was philosophical: drawing on Hannah Arendt’s idea that legal identity is a constructed mask rather than a reflection of the self, ID Shop challenged how personhood is defined within U.S. identification laws. The project exposed the limitations of these laws and the legal system’s failure to recognize many forms of lived identity.
Third, it was practical: by partnering with art institutions, we used their addresses to issue letters of residency. This allowed participants to apply for IDs using the institution as a temporary legal “home”—a gesture that revealed the gaps in federal and state policies while imagining new roles for cultural institutions in supporting marginalized communities.
ID Shop thus aims to benefit members of marginalized ethnic and gender groups and re-examining the practices of hospitality to give comfort and make welcome the stranger-foreigner, the host must act; to resettle displaced people, a host nation must act.
Image: Installation view of ID Shop, welcome to what we took from is the state Exhibition, Queens Museum, New York City, 2016
ID Shop has been presented at multiple venues including the Queens Museum and HotWood Art Center and funded by More Art (2015-2016), Foundation of Contemporary Art Emergency Grants (2016), Awesome Foundation (2016), the Laundromat Project (2017), and individual donors.
