August 01, 2013

“Deception Pass” Premier

Matthew Andrews

"meditative and transfixing"

DAVIS, CA (August 1, 2013) -- The Center for Art and Thought (CA+T), a web-based arts and education nonprofit organization, announces the premier of a new commissioned work: Deception Pass by cross-disciplinary artist Kat Larson. The video work is part of CA+T's first curated exhibition "Sea, Land, Air: Migration and Labor," which begins August 1 and will run for the next three months on CA+T's new official website.

A meditative and transfixing video piece, Deception Pass is inspired by the beautiful waterway area with the same name north of Seattle. Larson, who has deep ties to the city on both her mother and father's sides, uses the whole of her body to be one with the land on which her Filipino and Scandinavian ancestors fostered their hopes and dreams. This juxtaposition results in unlikely connections, the transformation of spaces, and an archive of truths and deceptions passed down orally over the generations.

CA+T commissioned Deception Pass in January 2013, asking Larson to create a work inspired by the themes of CA+T's inaugural curated exhibition "Sea, Land, Air: Migration and Labor." The online exhibition features work from over 40 artists and scholars from around the world centered on the theme of Filipino global migrancy and labor.

Over the last half century, the Philippines has become one of the leading labor-exporting countries in the world. With its multiple histories of colonialism (Spain, the United States, Japan), dependency on transnational political and economic institutions is not new to Filipinos. However, with increased globalization, the Philippines has transformed into what sociologist Robyn Magalit Rodriguez calls a "labor brokerage state"—a country "which actively prepares, mobilizes, and regulates its citizens for migrant work abroad." Whether in Hong Kong, Italy, Qatar, or the United States, many Filipinos eke out meager livelihoods abroad while sending remittances to support their kababayans [families and close friends] in the Philippines, a system that has come to serve a vital role in the Philippine economy. “Sea, Land, Air” brings together a rich, diverse, and thought-provoking selection of artists and scholars from across the globe to help visualize, imagine, and engage in critical thought and conversation about these dynamics of Filipino migration and labor.

Several contributions to "Sea, Land, Air" ground circuits of Filipino migration and labor in the Philippines' multiple colonial and imperial histories. Lordy Rodriguez’s stunning reconfiguration of maps in North Pole (2009) and South Pole (2009), for example, re-imagines territorial colonial conquest and maps out trade routes that engage cartography's fictions and imperial foundations. This work is accompanied by a number of visual art contributions that illuminate the iconographic details associated with Filipino migrant labor. Mik Gaspay's photorealistic painting Pacific Fleet (2008) references how navy uniforms became a source of geographic and economic mobility for thousands of Filipino sailors who enlisted as stewards in the U.S. Navy during the American colonial period and thereafter. Historian Catherine Ceniza Choy writes that, like military uniforms, the white nurse's cap on Filipinas "symbolically and literally became a passport to a more prosperous life" as well as a source of the physical and psychic struggle made visible in Jenifer K. Wofford's Nurse (2006-2007), Point of Departure (2007), and MacArthur Nurses (2009) series.

The exhibition also includes work that brings to the fore the affective dimensions of migration. Perhaps It Was Possibly Because (2009), a selection of photographs by Wawi Navarroza, resembles snapshots taken by someone in transit, perhaps a tourist or a migrant laborer, and embodies pathos that projects a fitting yet unsettling sensibility onto the concept and reality of displacement. Scholarly contributions, such as Clement Camposano's "Enacting Embeddedness through the Transnational Traffic in Goods" and Claudia Liebelt's "'We Are the Jews of Today,'" explore Filipino migrants' attempts to create and sustain physical as well as sensate conceptions of "home" in Hong Kong and Israel. Conceptual artist Miguel Libarnes' video installation Oath/Panatang (2012) complements these works, revealing the schizophrenic nature of national allegiances that many Filipinos settled abroad continue to endure.

"Sea, Land, Air" also features the inaugural installation of CA+T's Dialogues series, which brings together a selection of artists, writers, and scholars for a sustained, thematically-driven conversation. In this installation, Migrant Musicians: Filipino Entertainers and the Work of Music Making, Theodore S. Gonzalves, R. Zamora Linmark, and Karen Tongson join in a conversation moderated by Sarita Echavez See. Informed by their artistic and scholarly work and by their own histories and experiences, they reflect, in an exchange of e-mails and Facebook messages, on the ways in which Filipino musicians have circulated as part of a global entertainment industry and on how the process of transforming "living song into living labor" can disguise and deny the work that undergirds the making and feeling of music.

About the Center for Art and Thought

Download the Press Release [PDF]

curated exhibition

Cruising

How do we think about cruising in a multi-dimensional and multi-faceted framework that encompasses the experience of queerness in an age where “cruising” can be imagined beyond a geographical space?

Cruising in this group exhibition inhabits several registers of embodiment, sensation, space, and temporality. In homage to José Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia, Cruising navigates the many ways that Muñoz engages with the quotidian, or the everyday moments, of queer life. This exhibition moves through “cruising” as both a fluid and fragmented concept. The works of each of the five artists—Marissa Cruz, Kelvin Burzon, Jana Ercilla, Daniel Ballesteros, and Adrian Alarilla—contribute to themes of intimacy, time, space, abundance, ephemerality, tenderness, and distance.

These artists work through different definitions and possibilities of cruising as a queer way of life. Instead of situating “cruising” as a definitive action, spatial concept, or “event,” these artists readjust the scope of cruising into a larger frame of quotidian queer life where viewers can see a past, present, and future of “cruising” that includes health, transitions, routines, and dis/comforts. Often times these moments in queer life are brushed over or perhaps only surface in crisis; however, these are the moments that necessitate slowness and care. What happens when queer bodies are able to think and move beyond crisis and into futurity?

Daniel Ballesteros’s series Night Pictures evokes a simultaneous feeling of loneliness, abundance, and timeliness by allowing us to visually experience a transition defined by the seasons.

Jana Ercilla’s Normalcy allows the viewer to walk through the intimacy of her home and routines, which lends viewers a space we can envision ourselves in or be a part of.

Kelvin Burzon’s Latex series reconstructs the parts of the body with condoms, raw meat, and thread that reminds viewers of the many sensitivities their bodies hold, their entanglements with other bodies, and their health.

Marissa Cruz ruptures typical conceptions of space through her digital reproductions of space and movement by obscuring and masking her backgrounds with both intimate and public space accompanied by dance, music, and her own body.

Lastly, Adrian Alarilla’s Queer Transnational Love in the Time of Social Media and Globalization achingly excavates the quotidian moments of our digital lives where pain, love, and distance paint our relationships.



Curated by the Center for Art and Thought, with special acknowledgment and thanks to Filipino American Artist Directory. For more information about the artists and FAAD, navigate to. https://www.filamartistdirectory.com/

Contributors: Adrian Alarilla, Daniel Ballesteros, Kelvin Burzon, Marissa Cruz, and Jana Ercilla

Spring 2019

Web Me Pt. 1

Marissa Sean Cruz

2017 Video Duration: 5 min. 35 secs. Courtesy of the artist

contributor

X

Marissa Sean Cruz

b. 1996
image description
  • See All Works
  • visit website

Marissa Sean Cruz is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist. Cruz’s practice is based in Montreal, Canada where she focuses on video and sculpture. As a queer biracial Filipinx, much of Cruz's work acts as a rapprochement into the complexities of racial identity and reconciliation of sexual and social absurdities of daily “feminine” rituals.

Cruz is a celebrated video artist who has had work displayed throughout Canada. Her work provocatively intertwines humor and symbolism to criticize oppressive systems within society and on the internet.

location

X
  • Born: Halifax, Canada
  • Based: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

comments

X

Web Me Pt. 2

Marissa Sean Cruz

2017 Video Duration: 1 min. 27 secs. Courtesy of the artist

contributor

X

Marissa Sean Cruz

b. 1996
image description
  • See All Works
  • visit website

Marissa Sean Cruz is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist. Cruz’s practice is based in Montreal, Canada where she focuses on video and sculpture. As a queer biracial Filipinx, much of Cruz's work acts as a rapprochement into the complexities of racial identity and reconciliation of sexual and social absurdities of daily “feminine” rituals.

Cruz is a celebrated video artist who has had work displayed throughout Canada. Her work provocatively intertwines humor and symbolism to criticize oppressive systems within society and on the internet.

location

X
  • Born: Halifax, Canada
  • Based: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

comments

X

Web Me Pt. 3

Marissa Sean Cruz

2017 Video Duration: 4 min. 13 secs. Courtesy of the artist

contributor

X

Marissa Sean Cruz

b. 1996
image description
  • See All Works
  • visit website

Marissa Sean Cruz is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist. Cruz’s practice is based in Montreal, Canada where she focuses on video and sculpture. As a queer biracial Filipinx, much of Cruz's work acts as a rapprochement into the complexities of racial identity and reconciliation of sexual and social absurdities of daily “feminine” rituals.

Cruz is a celebrated video artist who has had work displayed throughout Canada. Her work provocatively intertwines humor and symbolism to criticize oppressive systems within society and on the internet.

location

X
  • Born: Halifax, Canada
  • Based: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

comments

X

LATEX: Heart

Kelvin Burzon

2016 - 2017 Archival inkjet print 14" x 14" Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Kelvin Burzon

b. 1989
image description
  • See All Works
  • visit website

Kelvin Burzon is a Filipino American artist whose work explores intersections of sexuality, race, gender and religion. His most recent work investigates religion’s role in culture and familial relationships and highlights religion’s traditions, imagery, theatricality, and psychological vestiges. He graduated from Wabash College (Indiana) and received his M.F.A. from Indiana University’s School of Art, Architecture + Design. His work has been exhibited abroad and all over the country and is a part of several permanent collections, including The Kinsey Institute and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. He has presented his work at several conventions, including the Society of Photographic Education’s regional and national conferences. Burzon continues to push his work with inspirations from the past, recontextualized narratives, and imagery of religion, paired with the never-ending stimulation and inspiration from the LGBTQ+ community

“CAUTION: This Product Contains Natural Rubber Latex Which May Cause Allergic Reactions. Latex condoms are intended to prevent pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted infections.”

The Natural Rubber Series is an exploration of imagery that brings to the foreground issues of contraception methods in the modern world. The photographs question the ethical and the natural, the positive and the negatives, and the vulgar and the beautiful.

location

X
  • Born: Orani, Bataan
  • Based: Bloomington, IN, USA

comments

X

LATEX: Andro

Kelvin Burzon

2016 - 2017 Archival inkjet print 14" x 14" Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Kelvin Burzon

b. 1989
image description
  • See All Works
  • visit website

Kelvin Burzon is a Filipino American artist whose work explores intersections of sexuality, race, gender and religion. His most recent work investigates religion’s role in culture and familial relationships and highlights religion’s traditions, imagery, theatricality, and psychological vestiges. He graduated from Wabash College (Indiana) and received his M.F.A. from Indiana University’s School of Art, Architecture + Design. His work has been exhibited abroad and all over the country and is a part of several permanent collections, including The Kinsey Institute and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. He has presented his work at several conventions, including the Society of Photographic Education’s regional and national conferences. Burzon continues to push his work with inspirations from the past, recontextualized narratives, and imagery of religion, paired with the never-ending stimulation and inspiration from the LGBTQ+ community

“CAUTION: This Product Contains Natural Rubber Latex Which May Cause Allergic Reactions. Latex condoms are intended to prevent pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted infections.”

The Natural Rubber Series is an exploration of imagery that brings to the foreground issues of contraception methods in the modern world. The photographs question the ethical and the natural, the positive and the negatives, and the vulgar and the beautiful.

location

X
  • Born: Orani, Bataan
  • Based: Bloomington, IN, USA

comments

X

LATEX: Kidneys

Kelvin Burzon

2016 - 2017 Archival inkjet print 14" x 14" Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Kelvin Burzon

b. 1989
image description
  • See All Works
  • visit website

Kelvin Burzon is a Filipino American artist whose work explores intersections of sexuality, race, gender and religion. His most recent work investigates religion’s role in culture and familial relationships and highlights religion’s traditions, imagery, theatricality, and psychological vestiges. He graduated from Wabash College (Indiana) and received his M.F.A. from Indiana University’s School of Art, Architecture + Design. His work has been exhibited abroad and all over the country and is a part of several permanent collections, including The Kinsey Institute and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. He has presented his work at several conventions, including the Society of Photographic Education’s regional and national conferences. Burzon continues to push his work with inspirations from the past, recontextualized narratives, and imagery of religion, paired with the never-ending stimulation and inspiration from the LGBTQ+ community

“CAUTION: This Product Contains Natural Rubber Latex Which May Cause Allergic Reactions. Latex condoms are intended to prevent pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted infections.”

The Natural Rubber Series is an exploration of imagery that brings to the foreground issues of contraception methods in the modern world. The photographs question the ethical and the natural, the positive and the negatives, and the vulgar and the beautiful.

location

X
  • Born: Orani, Bataan
  • Based: Bloomington, IN, USA

comments

X

LATEX: Gyno

Kelvin Burzon

2016 - 2017 Archival inkjet print 14" x 14" Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Kelvin Burzon

b. 1989
image description
  • See All Works
  • visit website

Kelvin Burzon is a Filipino American artist whose work explores intersections of sexuality, race, gender and religion. His most recent work investigates religion’s role in culture and familial relationships and highlights religion’s traditions, imagery, theatricality, and psychological vestiges. He graduated from Wabash College (Indiana) and received his M.F.A. from Indiana University’s School of Art, Architecture + Design. His work has been exhibited abroad and all over the country and is a part of several permanent collections, including The Kinsey Institute and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. He has presented his work at several conventions, including the Society of Photographic Education’s regional and national conferences. Burzon continues to push his work with inspirations from the past, recontextualized narratives, and imagery of religion, paired with the never-ending stimulation and inspiration from the LGBTQ+ community

“CAUTION: This Product Contains Natural Rubber Latex Which May Cause Allergic Reactions. Latex condoms are intended to prevent pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted infections.”

The Natural Rubber Series is an exploration of imagery that brings to the foreground issues of contraception methods in the modern world. The photographs question the ethical and the natural, the positive and the negatives, and the vulgar and the beautiful.

location

X
  • Born: Orani, Bataan
  • Based: Bloomington, IN, USA

comments

X

Normalcy #8

Jana Ercilla

2015 Color Film Photography 7.5" x 12" Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Jana Ercilla

b. 1991
image description
  • See All Works
  • facebook
  • visit website

Jana Ercilla was born in the Philippines and is currently based in San Antonio, Texas where she received her B.F.A. in Photography from Texas State University. Her work reflects her interest in marrying traditional art with modern conceptualism and expanding those viewpoints with her own experience as a gay woman and person of color. Jana is currently involved with the Filipino American Artist Directory and has shown her work in different parts of the United States. She is currently working on projects that are simultaneously helping her understand and accept herself within the societal confines into which she was born.

location

X
  • Born: Quezon City, Philippines
  • Based: San Antonio, TX, US

comments

X

Normalcy #11

Jana Ercilla

2015 Color Film Photography 7.5" x 12" Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Jana Ercilla

b. 1991
image description
  • See All Works
  • facebook
  • visit website

Jana Ercilla was born in the Philippines and is currently based in San Antonio, Texas where she received her B.F.A. in Photography from Texas State University. Her work reflects her interest in marrying traditional art with modern conceptualism and expanding those viewpoints with her own experience as a gay woman and person of color. Jana is currently involved with the Filipino American Artist Directory and has shown her work in different parts of the United States. She is currently working on projects that are simultaneously helping her understand and accept herself within the societal confines into which she was born.

location

X
  • Born: Quezon City, Philippines
  • Based: San Antonio, TX, US

comments

X

Normalcy #6

Jana Ercilla

2015 Color Film Photography 7.5" x 12" Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Jana Ercilla

b. 1991
image description
  • See All Works
  • facebook
  • visit website

Jana Ercilla was born in the Philippines and is currently based in San Antonio, Texas where she received her B.F.A. in Photography from Texas State University. Her work reflects her interest in marrying traditional art with modern conceptualism and expanding those viewpoints with her own experience as a gay woman and person of color. Jana is currently involved with the Filipino American Artist Directory and has shown her work in different parts of the United States. She is currently working on projects that are simultaneously helping her understand and accept herself within the societal confines into which she was born.

location

X
  • Born: Quezon City, Philippines
  • Based: San Antonio, TX, US

comments

X