SELECTED VIDEOS AND ART WORKS
A Hallucinations of a Dumaguete Landing & House of Memory
Looped two-monitor video installation
Excerpt: https://vimeo.com/569430380
Hallucinations of a Dumaguete Landing (after Paul Pfeiffer) is a looped video based on the image of a postcard of Thomasite missionaries landing on the shore of Dumaguete who later were part of the founding of Silliman University in 1901. I found the postcard, among the pile of archived documents about the Endhouse Art Center that once was part of Silliman University in the 90s.
The second video that dialogues with the first, entitled House of Memory, is based on a painting of the Endhouse Art Center, which was once the residence of Albert Faurot, an art collector and former professor at Silliman.I play with the theme of the persistence of memory through repetition but such repetition don’t necessarily establish presence. Documents like the images in the two videos, can also function as a questioning of existence in a more instructive sense. No one speaks of the Endhouse gallery anymore as if it hasn’t existed in the history of artists in Dumaguete and Silliman University. In the same way, the history of the missionaries landing in Dumaguete, as documented in the postcard, is no longer spoken of in terms of problematizing the colonial history of the place. These two instances in the history of Dumaguete, particularly in Silliman University, seem to be disparate events, but they are interconnected as evidences of the short-sightedness of remembrances.I treat the videos as my own personal reckoning of my formation as an artist–both a product of colonial American education, and of the group of dreamers that once gathered throughout the two-year existence of the Endhouse gallery in Silliman University.
Exhibited at the Place of the Region as Contemporary, UP Vargas Museum, 2018.
Waves of Time and Sea
(sound and video installation) 2021
Documentation: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/624440437​
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/624440437
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/624440437
"Waves of Time and Sea" was part of the Cast But One Shadow exhibition at the UP Vargas Museum launching tomorrow, September 24 and runs til January 2022. This piece was inspired by the book The Ties That Bind which chronicles the friendship of the Sultan of Sulu and the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in the 14th century. It plays with the historical affinities between China and the Philippines complete with baggage and all using popular iconographies such as the ubiquitous lucky cats waving in different speeds as sound of playing voices in Mandarin based on a copy of the archival letters of the Emperor to the Sultan of Sulu like a harmonic choir of sorts, programmed by Arduino triggering servo motors.
As a bridge to these cats, a pangalay dancer superimposing a composite of the sea plays in the video monitor as Tausug words roll like typewriter scrolls ala karaoke videos harking to the ubiquitous CDs sold in that part of the country (partly inspired by anthropologist Jowel Canuday's dissertation on the materialities of culture that speaks of cosmopolitanism in that part of the Philippines before the colonial period).
"Cast But One Shadow" is the second exhibition of a long-term and iterative research project by Kathleen Ditzig and Carlos Quijon, Jr. that situates Southeast Asia as a compelling coordinate to review the continued resonances of global solidarities. Developed in partnership with KONNECT ASEAN, an ASEAN Foundation arts program funded by the Republic of Korea.
Borders Are Liminal Spaces, We Are Border People
(one-channel video art, looped) 2021
Screener: https://youtu.be/E3309jWnU2g​
This work attempts to explore boundaries and thresholds and being in-between and how I react and engage with these spaces and beings. Being in a liminal space is experiencing time between ‘what was’ and the ‘next’. As an artist-on-standby during the pandemic, I occupy a place of transition, a season of waiting, and not knowing. It is transformational because within the borders we learn to wait and let it form us.
Exhibition: Video Art Space, Berlin 2022
This piece was created during the artist-residency at Belgrade Art Studio
Tracking Incendiary Traces
(sound art) 2021
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/claire-dy-1/tracking-incendiary-traces
The cover art image that accompanies this sound piece is a composite of different pictures of ruined buildings as a result of the NATO bombings of Belgrade in the 90s. The pictures have been converted into sound files using software and mixed with found audio to create a sound story that reimagines as though the buildings are bomber planes. What if the buildings retain traces of the airstrikes not just through their facades but through sounds? What if the buildings become bombers themselves turning the narrative of war inversely on itself?
This piece was created during the artist-residency at Belgrade Art Studio
Bodily Echoes (work-in-progress, 2022)
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Digital collage art exploring imaging the body and representation.
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Dream
(video projection looped, 2011, New York)
Singe-channel video projection/looped for Imagining Language Project (New York) A video art projection piece that plays with the texts and audio extracted from human rights research and archival news reportage on the Davao Death Squad, mixed with a radio recording of Mayor Duterte’s popular statement regarding his links to the vigilante group. This was created before Duterte became president. Now, it is more relevant than ever as his drug war has become a national project which allegedly still involves extrajudicial killings by the Davao Death Squad.
I Love Living in My Body
(sound piece, New York 2010
Exploring the juxtaposition of birds in cages with crowds and someone talking about surviving her body. System of care is something I'm interested in for a while now.
Prometheus Unbound 2022
released on Instagram and Facebook on September 21, 2022 on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Martial Law by Ferdinand Marcos SR.
I offered this piece in protest against historical distortion and revisionism. Let history be written! And let it remain so as a cautionary tale for this not to happen again. No amount of infrastructure that speaks of what we call "modern" progress can lessen the weight of the human rights abuses during that time. Fourteen massacres were carried out by paramilitary groups. And nine massacres against the marginalized Muslim people of Mindanao, where I come from. The Palembang massacre is one example of survivors still crying for justice. Women were raped. Men were tortured. Journalists and activists were killed.
I chose Marcos Sr.'s speech on this fateful day and converted it into images using a software. And the photos of those days I converted to sound. These compose the glitches of image and sound in this piece. This is a tribute to Pete Lacaba's book Prometheus Unbound, which came out on this day in 1972, after Martial Law was declared.
Future of Imagination
About the artwork: "In haptic visuality, the eyes themselves function like organs of touch”--Laura Marks
Holy Art Gallery, London
Taking the Wheel of Time
(work in progress, 2022)
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Self-portraits 2024 (works-in-progress)
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The 2024 series of artistic digital collage art self-portraits vividly captures the array of states and moods through the artist traverses Each piece serves as a visual exploration of emotions ranging from melancholy and solitude to joy and serenity, articulated through layers of photographs, paint, and found material. Subtle symbolic elements are woven throughout the collages, offering viewers a deeper insight into the psychological landscape of the subject.
Clouding (works-in-progress)
To fly and not to return . To arrive in a nowhere and elsewhere...
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These works were inspired by the common element in the Manobo tribe's myths and folklore narratives about characters soaring into the sky and traveling to both nowhere and elsewhere. The whereabouts of the characters were inconsequential to the story's ending. They simply take off. But in this series, the element of post-colonial anxiety brought about by mass migration is shoved into the picture. What happens when your Filipinoness takes flight and disappears?
Collage Collection 2024
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This captivating collage art collection, titled "Fragments of Life," showcases the evocative power of mixed media to explore the complexities of human experience. Each piece combines vintage photographs, textured papers, and found objects to create narratives that resonate with nostalgia and contemporary relevance. The artworks delve into themes of memory, identity, and transformation, employing a palette that ranges from vibrant to muted, reflecting the varied emotions embedded within. The collection is both a visual feast and a conceptual exploration, inviting viewers to uncover the layered meanings and connect with the personal stories that each collage represents. Bold and thought-provoking, "Fragments of Life" challenges the boundaries of traditional art, making it a must-see for enthusiasts and collectors alike.
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