This talk explores how photography has historically reinforced systems of authority, ownership, and social power while examining how contemporary artist Sophia Giovannitti challenges these structures through conceptual artworks involving contracts, opacity, and participation. It argues that embracing discomfort can help audiences critically rethink artistic labor, representation, and visual culture.

This research traces the history of Agustín Cárdenas’s sculpture Antillean Couple from Cuba and Paris to the University of Pennsylvania. By examining galleries, collectors, auctions, and institutional acquisitions, it demonstrates how private networks shape artistic value and how public art can illuminate transnational histories, postcolonial identity, and cultural circulation.