This exhibition showcases two perspectives on issues concerning the body in relation to the intergenerational Filipinx American identity and its subjectivity. Artists Kimberley Acebo Arteche and Francis Calimlim tackle issues of the self: the intergenerational self, the physical self, the fragmented self, the (dis)embodied self, and the diasporic self in relation to neo- & post-colonial topographies and institutions.
Kimberley Acebo Arteche: Bodiless, 2017-18
A photographic series exploring personal and global narratives of Filipina bodies and their physical and emotional labor. In wearing these dusters, I attempted to understand and embody the work of Filipina overseas workers in the care, health, and hospitality industries. In reflection and connection, I found parallels with my experience working in art spaces; a colorful figure amongst dominant spaces; a body seen, but whose voice is not heard or validated.”
Francis Calimlim: Transferential, 2018
This exhibition features a drawing installation of a large-scale self-portrait, from the “Transferential” series. The drawing will undergo a transfer process that has been developed over the past two years in which the graphite is lifted on strips of packaging tape and reconfigured to produce a “new” drawing. Rather than the individual strips of graphite being reconstructed back together on a new surface (such as a wall), the tape is dispersed throughout the space. The strips of tape that now hold fragments of the drawing/the self-portrait will be fragmented and scattered, only allowing glimpses and fractures of the face to be accessed at a time. The “original”, now faded, drawing will be displayed in the space.
The installation is a continuation and nuanced exploration of access, representation, identity, and body-in-space.
About the Artists
Kimberley Acebo Arteche is an educator, cultural worker, and interdisciplinary artist working in photography, installation, social practice, and performance. Her work explores the hybrid cultures formed by technology, movements of immigrants in America, and the way movements through space and spaces has been affected by these two.
Arteche is committed to collaboratively creating decolonial practices within arts institutions, and creating visibility and providing resources for emerging Asian Pacific American and BIPOC Artists.
For more information: www.kimarteche.com
Francis Calimlim is a Filipino American interdisciplinary artist whose work explores subjectivity within Filipino American diasporic communities and its (neo/post)colonial symptoms. Utilizing mixed media processes including drawing, sculpture and collage, he focuses on the subject of the balikbayan (overseas Filipino) entangled in intergenerational collisions and trauma. Calimlim is interested in the individual residing within and who form these communities, who are often times generalized under the focus of communal healing, resistance, and solidarity.
For more information: www.franciscalimlimart.com