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these images include the CHamorus who she interviewed

If anyone is able to help us identity this man, please comment or reach out to us on social media or else email our curator at michael.bevacqua@dca.guam.gov

Mavis Van Peenan was an US Navy wife who lived on the island of Guam for a number of years just before the start of World War II in 1941. While she lived in Guam she interviewed a number of CHamorus, collecting stories, legends and other beliefs many of are still commonly told today such as the Legends of Gådao, Camel Rock and Alupang. She later published these stories in a book.

The Guam Museum holds a collection of items and photographs from Mavis Van Peenan from her family’s time in Guam. Some of these images include the CHamorus who she interviewed, such as this elderly man. If anyone is able to help us identity this man, please comment or reach out to us on social media or else email our curator at michael.bevacqua@dca.guam.gov

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In her first solo show, Julia Birn presents Chewing on Static. She regards this body of work as an exploration of what it means to live in a life that no longer feels entirely familiar. Ms. Birn uses her work as a way to consider what happens when something changes the way one moves through the world, the relationship with oneself, and understanding of the future, as a result of chronic illness. Her paintings emerge from this unresolved experience, giving shape to the feeling of living with something that cannot always be explained or communicated. Through abstraction, fragmentation, and restricted palettes, the works hold onto that tension, allowing forms to shift and remain ambiguous. What emerges is a reflection of what it is like to live with a reality that has become difficult to recognise. The title of the exhibit, Chewing on Static speaks to the mental noise that comes from searching for clarity, questioning one's own experience, and trying to communicate something that refuses to become simple or certain. It is about what happens when one is forced to construct a new understanding of oneself and continue living within something that is unchosen. Through her work, Birn asks the viewer to enter a space where certainty is difficult to find, and to sit with what cannot be resolved. Julia Birn is an accomplished artist, graphic designer, and entrepreneur, who has participated in multiple large and small group shows in Guam since 2022. She has recently earned her BFA in graphic design from the Savannah College of Art and Design, Summa Cum Laude. Follow her on Instagram @deafeningsilenceco or contact via email at deafeningsilenceco@gmail.com

Chewing on Static

Chewing on Static https://www.guammuseumfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Chewing-on-Static-INSTAGRAM_4K_H265.mov The next exhibit opening October 24, 2026 at the Guam Museum Cafe Gallery. In her first solo show, Julia Birn presents

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