MOB

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Reanne “Immaculata” Estrada, Eliza “Neneng” Barrios, and Jenifer “Babs” Wofford work collaboratively as Mail Order Brides/M.O.B., a trio of Filipina-American artists engaged in an ongoing conversation with culture and gender. While the term “mail order bride” is often shorthand for an obedient domestic partner, it has not escaped this trio’s attention that “Mail Order Bride” abbreviates down to a far more sinister acronym that informs the darker subtext of their operations.

Taking matters into their own well-manicured hands, M.O.B. deploys their innate charm, guile, and fine fashion sense to gently pry open the eyes of the closed-minded. Enforced enlightenment has arrived in the form of karaoke videos and museum makeovers, in photographic psychodramas and parade performances, in bridesmaid entrepreneurships and corporate dominations.

M.O.B. “hits” have included the Asian Art Museum, the de Young Museum, YBCA, and Southern Exposure (San Francisco, CA), San Jose Museum of Art, (San Jose, CA), Wing Luke Museum (Seattle, WA), Drive-By Cinema (San Diego, CA), McColl Center (Charlotte, NC), 1A Space (Hong Kong), Green Papaya Art Projects and the Manila Biennale (Manila, Philippines). Their video screenings include the S.F. International Asian American Film Festival, the S.F. International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the New York Mix Festival and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.