This Sacramento art exhibit explores Filipina identity, culture and representation
In the second room of the 1810 Gallery is a figure of a brown woman, adorned in a flowing cape, brilliant headdress and cradling a ball of light in her hands, floats against a brilliant blue background over an altar lined with offerings, including a bottle of sand from the Philippines.
The sculpture is an act of reclamation, of reinterpreting the sacredness of symbols and a study in representation, according to Franceska Gamez, a curator at the Sacramento gallery. Gamez was born in the Philippines, predominantly Catholic due to 333 years of Spanish colonization, and grew up seeing figures of a white baby Jesus everywhere.
But she always felt disconnected from the figurines, Gamez said. Seeing the same white male child revered in so many ways led her to re-imagine the figure of the idol as someone she could actually connect with and understand.
The result — a brown woman placed on a pedestal in the same fashion as baby Jesus, designated for worship and reverence — is a rumination on who we choose to idolize and how placing figures on pedestals that look more like their viewers can help them see themselves and recognize themselves as “whole,” Gamez said.
“This is the kind of show I needed growing up,” Gamez said. “If it isn’t there, you just gotta build it yourself.”
Her piece is just one of many being featured in the Kapwa Exhibition, a collection of artwork from six Filipina visual artists that celebrates and explores Filipina identity, representation and cultural history.
It’s being shown for two more weekends at 1810 Gallery, tucked into a warehouse-style space at 215 14th St., in collaboration with Philippine National Day Association Lahiarts — the last day is Nov. 8. The works are open to the public by appointment only, or through the virtual gallery tour, and they offer free virtual workshops with artists and performers.
The six artists involved are Gamez, Malaya Tuyay, Kill Joy, Cece Carpio, Mariel Paat and Niki Waters, and it’s the first time they’ve all worked together, Gamez said. Her goal, she said, was to emphasize the importance of visibility and representation, especially for Filipina artists.
“It was really important to showcase the role of the arts in ensuring that our communities ... see positive images of ourselves,” said Vince Sales, arts programmer for PNDA and one of the exhibition’s organizers.
Pieces line the walls of the airy gallery, paintings and sculptures created with lush, colorful detail and care. It’s a wide range of pieces, from a collection of scenes from a bustling town in the Philippines to dramatic, charged paintings of volcanoes and acrylic portraits of Filipina women.
One wall was adorned edge-to-edge with a painting of two women embracing, with a trail of gold flecks streaming from one woman’s ear into the nose of the other. It’s a self-portrait of Tuyay and her partner, Gamez said, adding that Tuyay mentioned it was one of the first pieces where she felt that she could express her queer identity through.
“(It’s) been over 20 years since I saw something like this,” Sales said. “I felt a sense of elation to be able to work in community with artists who have a unique perspective on … Filipina culture and women … that’s not typically shown in museums or galleries.”
At its core, Gamez said, the exhibit is about human connection, something that’s even more important than ever in a year of seemingly endless social and political division. Several people who came to see the show had unexpectedly emotional reactions, she said, moved by the different ways the artists found to express human connection and identity.
“The show has come at such a perfect time … seeing how much we’ve been divided this past year,” Gamez said. “It’s a pro-human show about how we care for one another.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2020 at 5:00 AM.