During the opening of the Honolulu Biennial in February 2019, a woman approached me and my wife Frances as we stood next to our newly commissioned installation. “I have been looking for these for 30 years,” she said, pointing to the plinth showcasing two-dozen 3D-printed sculptures we had created for the Biennial.

The woman, it turned out, was Honolulu-based lawyer Sherry Broder. Since 1986, Broder has been part of a nationwide team of attorneys fighting to collect damages for a class of victims tortured and killed during the first Marcos regime. In 1994, they won a class-action lawsuit with a total settlement of USD 2 billion, one of the largest personal injury verdicts in United States history. Broder’s life’s mission has been to collect this settlement, hunting down shell companies and their hidden assets, a task that has proven increasingly elusive as the family ascended back to power.