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

Normalcy #13

Jana Ercilla

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

contributor

Jana Ercilla

b. 1991

biography

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.