Mata Art Gallery PresentsHALIMAWA solo exhibition of visual artworks by Rialin José opening online Saturday, October 1, 2022.With special YouTube Premiere opening performance, Sayaw ng Pagitan (≈ Dance of Distance), by Xuvenir at 5pm (PT) on October 1!Celebrate the start of FilAm History Month with the Mata Art Gallery community! Join us for the opening performance watch party, engage with other viewers & the artists in a live chat while we all watch the performance premiere online together for the first time. 

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ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:

​Content warning: The following artist statement contains mentions of trauma.

The word HALIMAW means monster in Tagalog. This collection features a variety of creatures from Philippine mythology, including: the bungisngis, aswang, tiyanak, manananggal, nuno, and pugot.

Made with ink and paper, each creature is represented grotesquely, but is also intertwined with deeply human themes. This marriage of the unnatural and natural aims to challenge the juxtaposition of what is good and evil. By tying in uniquely Filipino cultural traits and values, Rialin José hopes to shed light on their dark consequences. 

HALIMAW explores tsismis (gossip), codependency, childhood trauma, utang na loob (a sense of debt to one’s inner-self), respect, piety, and hiya (shame). Some pieces contain phrases in Tagalog and Ilokano.

Sayaw ng Pagitan (≈ Dance of Distance) (2022) is the debut video performance work of LA-based Filipino-American experimental project Xuvenir. Sayaw presents a series of collaged travel footage set to a soundtrack of field recordings and live gong and
electronics improvisations, samples, and loops. These elements amount to a
visual compression of space, place, and time as well as the marriage of ancient
and modern sound technologies emerging in-tension, suspended on the cusp of
legibility.

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