As a child, Lyna Truong would ask her parents to tell her about their emigration from Vietnam during the war. They would always hesitate, refuse or brush off her requests.

A masked figure cloaked head to toe in white stepped onto the streets of Lagos, Nigeria. People chatting with fellow shoppers and haggling for merchandise looked up at the figure and moved aside in reverence, understanding the significance of the costume belonging to the exclusively male ancestor ritual of egungun.

Seven students painted huge, white display boxes in the courtyard of Perloff Hall while several more hooked up large TV panels to white walls inside.
With so much to prepare before the exhibition, architecture graduate student Jorel Sanchez Soto held a can of Lysol in his hand as he scrubbed away at windows to let light shine into the gallery.